


It's A Metaphor

by TheAvianDragon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, M/M, Mind Control, Mutual Pining, Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, don't let the tags fool you, it's a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-04-13 13:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 53,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14113437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAvianDragon/pseuds/TheAvianDragon
Summary: "Hello, Lance, I am doing well." Keith’s sentences come out robotic and forced, his voice devoid of emotion. "If you are here to lecture me about Allura… I'm afraid I'm not interested." His face is still lifeless, he's somehow still conveying everything he wants to say, without even so much as smiling."Your eyes are starting to freak me out buddy, are you sure you didn't touch anything on that planet?" Keith looks at him, with something that should have resembled shock, his eyes going wide, even as they remain uncharacteristically devoid of emotion.A small laugh slips past his lips as he looks down at the floor. "I assure you, I am fine... beyond fine."---------In hindsight, the team really should have noticed something was off with Keith sooner. From fogged eyes to dead glares, something is clearly off with the red paladin. The real question is if they'll find a way to save him from 'himself'.





	1. The Empress

**Author's Note:**

> [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) If you want to talk to me, I'm always checking it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We understand your reluctance, but be assured we are willing to do anything to prove our loyalty to you and your people," Shiro speaks up this time, gently stepping in front of the princess.
> 
> "Well, our empress is very sacred to us, if you can prove yourself to her, you'll prove yourself to us." Allura and Coran both flinch, stiffening up instantly.
> 
> "Surely-" Allura clears her throat, her voice was a few octaves higher. "-There is another way we can prove ourselves to you?"

_Love is like trying to catch air using a bug net, at first it seems like you're making progress, but everything is slipping through the holes without you realizing; and you're left with a few scared bugs left in its place._

Yeah, Keith isn't too good with Metaphors... or love for that matter. But bug nets aren't only used for half-baked metaphors that he thinks of in the shower, they're used for negotiating with alien species... Apparently.

"Why are we doing this again?" Keith swings the net down, the bug flying out of the way without a single issue, practically mocking him. Is anything really stopping him from stealing Lance's Bayard and blasting the damn yellow bug to smithereens?

"This bug is extremely valuable to Bromites! They're so valuable that they're used as signs of respect, if we offer up a few it will help us in convincing them to join the fight," Coran explains over the intercoms, Keith can practically hear the man twirling his moustache quizzically.

"Surely they haven't got much to offer us... if they collect rare bugs," Lance says, a shiver runs up Keith's spine at the thought of chomping down on the hard bugs, the crunch that followed would be repulsive. Oh god, aren't they like super juicy or something? "Why don't we just ask them, and if they say no then carry on our merry way."

"They may not be the most intelligent species, but Bromites are known for their strength and resilience, they'd be an invaluable addition to our armies." The Bromites actually remind Keith of bears... well, really weird bears.

They all have black hair and the build of a bear, they walk on their hind legs and have long noses like anteaters. Their claws are razor-sharp and can be retracted at will, their mouths are lined with layers of razor-sharp teeth, every tooth is serrated to assist in ripping apart trees and predators.

Keith still remembers seeing Lance’s face drop when they first arrived on the planet. Let’s just say, Lance was hoping it'd be full of humanoid 'alien babes'.

Honestly, Keith is kind of shocked that Lance didn't find a way to hit on them regardless.

"Just get the bugs and stop complaining, Lance," Shiro argues, he clearly isn't any happier about this than the rest of them, but he has to try and keep himself calm for the sake of the team.

It's easy to tell why these bugs are so sort after, it took an entire team of five paladins with lightning fast reflects... to catch two. Keith, a defender of the universe, the _red paladin_... is currently being outsmarted by a tiny yellow bug.

"How many have you managed to gather?" Allura suddenly says over the intercoms, the quiet squeaks of mice in the present in the background.

"Thre- GOTCHA YOU LITTLE BASTARD!! Make that four," Pidge says as she proudly holds up the large bug, its legs flailing wildly in her hand as she grips it by its shell.

"Okay, that should be enough, I'll meet you guys at the palace entrance. Remember, no fighting." She doesn't outright say it, but it’s clear she's addressing Keith and Lance with that final statement, no one else fights with as much passion as them.

The team shrugs off her comment and loads all the bugs into a small bag. Soon enough, they leave the forest and make their way towards the palace. 

Allura and Coran stand outside the palace, idly chatting with a few members of the royal family as they wait for the paladins to return. The both immediately light up, gesturing towards the lions when they come into view.

When Keith finally emerges from his lion, he’s instantly swamped by the royal family. He’s poked and prodded with paws and snouts alike. He’s never been so grateful for retractable claws

"We hope you will accept our gift, as a peace offering," Allura hands the king the bag of bugs, bowing as she does so. He happily takes them and smiles down at the princess, before passing the bag off to a servant to put away. "We would like if we could talk to you about our fight against the Galra."

"Hmm, while I would like to, I'm afraid a few bugs aren't going to be enough to sway our people into joining your cause." Everyone's faces drop, they spent **hours** in the hot sun, collecting stupid bugs for absolutely **no** reason. Keith is going to murder a bitch. "We’re a peaceful race. We put aside our violent ways long ago, I'm afraid my people wouldn't want to take part in a war. Not again." The Bromites were one of Altea's strongest allies when war broke out ten thousand years ago. However, everthint changed when the Galra took over. They lost a large portion of their population, soldiers and civilians alike. It's no surprise they settled for a more peaceful life.

"We understand your reluctance, but be assured, we are willing to do anything to prove our loyalty to you and your people," Shiro speaks up this time, gently stepping in front of the princess.

"Well, our empress is very sacred to us, if you can prove yourself to her, you'll prove yourself to us." Allura and Coran both flinch, stiffening up instantly.

"Surely-" Allura clears her throat, her voice a few octaves higher. "-There is another way we can prove ourselves to you?"

"I'm afraid not. We understand if you would not like to visit the empress, but if you do not, we shall not join the coalition," The king booms, he's being unreasonable and that pisses Keith off to no end.

"Just take us to your empress, let's get this thing over with." Keith crosses his arms, huffing in annoyance as he glares at anyone who looks at him for longer than two seconds.

"Sorry, Keith is our resident emo," Lance mocks, smirking over at the black haired boy to his left, elbowing him gently. Keith rolls his eyes and shoves lance away. Lance stumbles for a few seconds before regaining his feet. Still smirking, of course.

Keith holds himself back from saying, “if you’re not already aware, Lance is our resident fuckboy.” Only just.

"Keith, you don't understand, the empress isn't a nice person-" Allura starts explaining before Pidge cuts her off this time.

"Allura, it's fine, we've fought the Galra countless times, this Empress will be nothing!" Pidge adds, fiddling with her visor.

"Guys listen to me, please." Allura sounds desperate, "She's a manipulative creature, she knows what she wants and how to get it. Her only goal is to ruin your life, I've seen it too many times before," Allura isn’t quite begging, but, she’s damn close to it. She’s warning the Paladins, almost ordering them stand down. 

"I'm sorry, princess, but I'm on their side too. We need to expand the coalition, the Galra are growing stronger eachday. We’re not children, we can handle it," Lance says, even he isn't siding with the princess and he usually follows her blindly.

"Fine, just... please, be careful.” Allura finally gives in, accepting that she isn’t going to change their minds anytime soon.

A few hunters of the Bromites start leading the paladins through the forest, twisting and turning past trees like they’ve done it a thousand times before. Eventually, the team emerges in a clearing, a large cave carved out in the Cliffside.

There are ten hand marks on either side of the cave, carved deeply into the rock of the walls.  Symbols cover the whole surface of the rock, each drawing carved delectably into the rocks surface. Everything is completely alien to Keith (which shouldn’t be a suprise), each ‘letter’ resembles some form of alien life. The walls are covered in line after line of vague figures, clearly telling a story.

"All who wish to enter, please place your hands on a mark." All of the paladins step forward, slowly placing their hands on the imprints. "The empress shall now read your deepest and darkest desires, she shall then pick who is worthy of speaking to her," The mark under Keith's hand starts to glow first, a light hue of blue shinning through the wall. Electricity rockets through his body, causing his head to spin and bones the ache. Keith suddenly feels sluggish, memories starting to flicker past his eyes like his mind is replaying his life without his consent.

Most of them were of the desert, the shack and his father. However, as they went on... it was of his loneliness, how he'd sit on the roof of a night, cigarette in hand and just stare up at the stars. Just him and the infinite cosmos. His corkboard of when he was tracking the blue lion... _The blue lion_. He feels his heart starting to thunder in his chest. His mind flickers back to when Blue opened herself up to Lance without so much as second glance at Keith. He had spent years in that godforsaken desert, yet she didn’t once consider him as a worthily Paladin. 

Keith suddenly gasps, taking a few long strides back as he looks around, everyone else seemed perfectly normal, completely unaffected. His handprint is still glowing a bright blue while the others have long faded back until the dull grey of the rock face.

"You okay, dude?" Lance asks, walking over to him and places a hand on his back.

"No, did no one else feel weird? Like... things?" Keith asks. Surely someone else saw  _something_ or at least felt a little odd? The team looked around at each other with an odd gaze, no one speak up about what the saw (or to be more accurate, didn't see). 

Why did he suddenly feel so jealous? He’s not jealous of Lance, he actually prefers Red to Blue. It was like something else was amplifying his emotions, meddling inside of his brain.

"The Empress has chosen. Red paladin, please make your way inside," One of the hunter's orders, holding his spear threateningly towards the Paladins. Keith blindly reaches for his bayard as the hunters step closer, spears outstretched in front of him.

"No way! He is not going in there alone!" Lance says, grabbing his wrist to pull him back. Keith stumbles for a few moments before regaining his footing, he huff and glares at Lance as he roughly pulls his hand away.

"Paladin, let go of the chosen, he shall be safe." Another one of the aliens speaks, thrusting their spear forward in a menacing gesture.

"It's fine, Lance. I’m not a princess in need of saving.” Keith steps away from Lance, making his way towards the black abyss of the cave.

The cave is almost unnaturally dark. Keith taps his helmet twice, the night vision function kicking in - he'll be sure to thank Pidge later. The cave seems pretty normal, there are a few bones scattered behind some rocks, the occasional bug runs across the floor or drop of water hits the ground with a quiet splash. He walks deeper and deeper, his hand naturally holding onto his Bayard, preparing to fight if necessary. He's not scared per say, more cautious. 

A pair of eyes land on Keith, lazing up and down his body like a cold knife along his back. Keith spins around and whips out his Bayard, the red glow of the sword lighting up the cave for a split second. Something moves in the shadows, twisting and turning and it coils around the edges of the cave.

Keith holds his sword defensively at where he remembers seeing the shadow.

"Now, now, little one. There isn't need for that here," A cool voice whispers, it’s all around him, in every part of the room, yet nowhere at the same time. The voice has a slight lisp, slurring as it speaks. "We're all friendsssss here.” Something slithers through the cave  rocks clatter as something knocks them around. Keith spins back around, the movement now coming from behind him. Something massive is moving around in the shadows, but he can’t tell what it is. 

He hates it admit it, but maybe lance was right. Maybe he shouldn’t have come alone.

"Show yourself!" Keith orders, holding his sword tightly as he keeps looking around, the movement coming from different places every time. Either this thing is bigger than he first anticipated or its insanely fast.

Honestly, he doesn't know which is worse. 

"How could I say no to a face like that?" The voice is smooth and seductive like it's the pure embodiment of lust and deception. Suddenly two purple eyes appear in the dark, slowly getting bigger. The slithering noise gets louder until there is a flicker of a forked tongue in the light, then the swish of a tail behind him. A massive python is coiled around him. Keith still able to move freely and he has plenty of space, but it's trapping him in the one area. The python looks exactly like the ones found on earth, other than it's size, obviously. However, its body is covered in a myriad of patterns, all of which change from moment to moment. It’s entire body is a hypnotic display of colour. 

"Who are you?" Keith says again, analysing the snake around him. The snake’s eyes are hypnotic and deep, they’re always focused on him, no matter where the snake moves to. Keith finds himself staring for longer and longer each time, it soon grows to the point where it’s almost painful to look away.

"Why... I am a friend," The snake speaks, it's entire head poking out of the darkness, an odd smile/smirk playing on its lips. It doesn't seem possible for a snake, yet it somehow it's doing it. "I must say, I have never met a human before, I have been waiting for thissss day.” The snake is still speaking in the same cold voice, the soothing yet seductive tone it masters so well.

"What do you want with me?" 

"Aren't you a curious one?" A small giggle emerges from the snake, a hiss in-between each breath. It's unnerving, if it wasn't for the almost constant hissing Keith would have thought it was human. "I am the Empress of these people. I called you in here because I can sense pain in your heart. You've been betrayed by the people you hold close, you push away the people you ssssecretly hold dear. Isn't that right young one?" Nope, nopity, nope, nope. This is an entire bag of nope on a train to nope-ville.

There is no way in HELL Keith is going to spill his entirety life a story to a snake of all creatures. Nope, not going no to happen. 

Keith's breath hitches anyway, the snakes knows too much about him for it to be a well-placed guess. There's an uncanny comfort about her, under the blaring alarms in his brain is a small voice whispering for him to trust her. The voice slowly gets louder and louder as time goes on. The Empress seems to notice Keith's torment as she giggles loudly. She slithers closer to Keith, nuzzling its head into his arm as it passes him.

"But, I can help you, I can get you what you want." What does he want? He doesn't even know what he wants, how could anyonr else? Scratch that, how could a **_snake_ ** know anything?

Soon though, the urge to run away starts melting inside of him. His legs begin to move on their own as he takes a step towards her. He catches himself before he can get any closer, but it's getting harder and harder each time.

"How do you know what I want?" Keith snaps, blinking as he tries to shake himself out of his dazed state, falling straight back into it the second his eyes meet the snakes. The alarm bells are all but gone, his entire body screaming to trust her, to **let her in**. He doesn't even know what that means, but his entire body is _screaming_ for it.

"I've seen you, Keith. I've seen everything you are, and everything you can be. With me by your sssssside, I can make you that person.” The snake tightens around him, the space between them getting smaller and smaller, yet he can't find it in himself to care. Keith feels himself becoming drowsier like he's on autopilot, his brain feeling mushy.

" _What I can be_ ," Keith slowly repeats, wobbling side to side in place, his eyes slowly closing more and more. The ringing in his ears and the smooth voice of the snake completely blocks out the worried cries of his teammates outside, the outside world all but melting away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out!


	2. Fogged eyes and dead glares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura steps forward and places a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Keith, are you okay? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled." Keith looks up, and slaps her hand away, his head tilting to the side ever so slightly.
> 
> "I advise that you **step down** ," Keith seethes, his eyes slowly glazing over as he looks up at her with a dead stare.

"Nope! He's taking abnormally long, this isn't normal. We should go and check on him." Lance is leaning on a nearby tree, tapping his foot in annoyance as he stares at the cave like it's personally offended him.

"Leave it, Lance, he's fine," Shiro says with an eye roll. "Just calm down and come over here, the red lion hasn't acted up, so he's fine." Lance hates how right Shiro  _always_ is. He glances over his shoulder at Red, grumpily noting how she's calmly sitting in her protective barrier. 

Lance groans and pushes himself away from the tree with his leg, walking over to the group before sitting down. A long hiss echo's from inside of the cave, it's as quiet like a whisper but makes the team jump all the same. They've been hearing those sounds for the entirety of the time Keith has been inside, not a peep has been heard from him though. Lance scrunches up his nose in distaste, how long will the mullet-head take?

Another sound echoes from the cave, this time it sounding human, it's... new. He hasn't heard anything like it before.

"What the quiznack was that!" Lance says, practically jumping out of his skin.

"Lance, calm down." Hunk says in a kind voice, grabbing Lance's shoulders to gently pull him back down to the ground. "If you keep freaking out, I'll start freaking out too."

"That was just Keith laughing, he's fine," Shiro says, leaning back on the tree behind him with crossed arms. 

"THAT!-" Pidge yells gesturing towards the cave. "-Is not normal! Especially not for Keith." 

"Keith laughs all the time." Shiro opens one of his eyes and waves a hand in her direction, dismissing her thoughts

"No, no he doesn't," Pidge says. "The closest he came to laughing was that time when Lance fell down the stairs, and all he did was smirk and exhale out of his nose."

Lance opens his mouth to defend himself. It seriously wasn't that funny, he just slipped on some food goo... near a flight of stairs. Look,  _how_ it happened isn't really that important, what is important is the fact that it wasn't his fault.

Hunk, however, cuts Lance off before he can defend himself, "Don't even try, Lance, it was hilarious and you can't deny it. You slipped, screamed for your mother in Spanish and then managed to hit every single stair on your way down." Lance was covered in bruises for weeks after that incident, training was next to impossible when he couldn't move without hissing in pain. 

Now that he thinks back to it... they were  _really_ lucky the Galra didn't attack that week.

The conversation is almost immediately dropped as a familiar voice cuts through the air, "Hey guys, what're you talking about?" Keith asks, stepping out of the cave and back into the sunlight. The Red paladin pulls his helmet off and breathes deeply through his nose as he steps into the open air. 

"Keith!" Lance yells, rushing up to him before skidding to a stop, and pushing his arms to his side. Dear god, was he about to  _hug_ Keith? Maybe he's the one acting weird?

"Hi? Lance, you seem worried, is everything okay?" Keith sounds rather relaxed, his voice melting into a calming tone that Lance isn't used to.

"Uh, yeah! Are you okay?" Lance asks, subtly trying to move the conversation along. The sooner they can get out of here the sooner Lance can forget about those weird hissing noises.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Keith walks away without another word, mumbling something about _'stupid lance'_ under his breath. The peace, however, only lasts a moment when Keith doubles over, grunting loudly as he stumbles. Keith shakes his head a few times, rubbing his temples before he straightens back up and carries on like nothing ever happened.

"That was weird right?" Lance asks as he looks around at everyone. Sure, Keith is a weird person, but that was strange, even for Keith.

"He's probably just tired, we've all had a long day," Hunk says with a shrug, wandering over to the yellow lion.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Lance can't shake off the feeling in his gut, something isn't right, but he can't work out _what_. Nothing actually stands out, he's his usual brooding self, ugly mullet and all, but something just doesn't sit right with Lance. Maybe he just needs to sleep too.

"So, how was she?" Shiro asks as he starts heading over to the black lion.

"Yeah, fine I guess. She didn't try to kill me, so that's helpful." Keith's standing in his usual relaxed stance, arms crossed and hip jutting out, his mouth in a scowl as per usual, his eyes flicker around as he instinctively checks for danger. Same old Keith.

"Oh, it was a _she_ , why couldn't I go and talk to her!" Lance cries as he flops down in his pilot seat, gripping the controls as his lion powers back up with a satisfied purr.

"Lance, we were literally told we were meeting an _empress_ , how little attention do you pay?" Pidge groans.

"Was she cute?" 

"Nah, she was like a massive snake," Keith says.

"I'd still slither into her-" Lance before Shiro cuts him off by forcibly muting his microphone.

"Lance, we've been over this! No innuendos, especially during missions!" Shiro chastises as he bumps his lion into Lance's, almost making up for the fact that he can't hit him on the upside of his head. "Now, let's just go meet up with Allura and tell her that Keith went well in meeting the Empress." Shiro pauses for a second. "It did go well, right, Keith?"

Keith coughs loudly before clearing his throat. "Yeah, it went fine, I don't get what Allura was so worried about." Lance watches Keith on the monitor to his left. Keith's eyes are glazed over, a white sheen over his black pupils as he stares off at nothing. Keith scrunches his eyes tight and blinks a few times, gripping his head. He looks back up and his eyes are back to normal, the white glaze gone like nothing ever happened. "Let's just get this over with. I've got a massive headache."

Allura and Coran sit together on the rails of the bridge, chatting as they bite on their nails and bounce their legs, they share idle chat as they try to take their minds off the paladins that are currently missing. They both exhale a sigh of relief when all five lions come into sight, traveling at a leisurely pace. Allura rushes over to the black lion and runs in the second its mouth opens. "Who saw the empress?!" Allura is flustered, to say the least, her face is red and sweaty from pacing around in the sun, her breathing shallow and rapid as she looks around.

"It was just Keith, why are you so wor- and she's gone." Shiro throws his hands up in frustration as Allura sprints out of the lion, without as much as a thank you, yelling at Coran to get to the red lion. When Keith stepes out he's met with a screaming Allura. 

"WHY DIDN'T YOU LISTEN TO ME?!" Allura isn't concerned for Keith's safety as Lance originally presumed, she's angry that he put his life at risk by disobeying her orders to stay away. Sure, she agreed to let the whole team go, but she advised them many times to stay out of the cave, that they should go in as a team or not at all. "I TOLD YOU HOW DANGEROUS SHE CAN BE!! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!!" Allura pushes Keith back, not too hard but hard enough to cause the Paladin to stumble back in shock, his eyes wide as he looks around for help, the other paladins saying out of the fight. The princess has never yelled like this before, she's a ball of pure rage.

"Allura, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to scare you, but everything went fi-" Keith holds his hands up, speaking in a quiet tone to avoid angering the princess further, she interrupts him before he can finish.

"It doesn't matter what happened, it's what _could_ have happened! You got lucky, Kogane!" Allura holds her finger up as she keeps yelling, something in Keith seeming to snap as his posture straightens up, his hands dropping to his sides and head hanging low towards the ground, reminding everyone of a robot that had been powered off. Allura's anger fizzles away into concern as she realises how harsh she's being. She steps forward and places a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Keith, are you okay? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled." Keith looks up, and slaps her hand away, his head tilting to the side ever so slightly.

"I advise that you **step down** ," Keith seethes, his eyes slowly glazing over as he looks up at her with a dead stare. It's full of anger and resentment, yet so empty at the same time as if everything behind his eyes just ceases to exist. "I did what I did for the good of the team, maybe you should learn how to be a part of one," Keith walks past her, bumping her with his shoulder as he storms off, his eyes were completely glazed over, a thick layer of fog covering them, almost completely coving the blackness of his eyes. He doesn't even glance at anyone as he walks past them, his chin up as he climbs back into the red lion, powering up with a loud growl instead of a loud purr.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) If you want to talk to me, I'm always checking it!


	3. The screams that fill the hall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hello, Lance, I am doing well." His sentences come out robotic and forced, his voice devoid of emotion. "If you are here to lecture me about Allura… I'm afraid I'm not interested." 
> 
> "Your eyes are starting to freak me out buddy, are you sure you didn't touch anything on that planet?" Keith looks at him, with something that should have resembled shock, his eyes going wide, even as they remain uncharacteristically devoid of emotion.
> 
> A small laugh slips past his lips as he looks down at the floor. "I assure you, I am fine... beyond fine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out!

The castle is... tense, to say the least. An aura of confusion, guilt and anger hangs in the halls. The memory of Keith's blow up still fresh in the teams minds. Sure, Keith's the team's 'Hot-Head', but he had never blown up like this before. Previously when things like this happened, they fizzled out as quickly as they bubbled up, however, this one has been going on for _hours_. Mount Keith is still truly erupting.

 **Ew**. Okay, that's a sentence Lance never wants to hear again in this life, and possibly the next. Yeah, that's a visual and a half.

Allura has tried on many occasions to apologise to Keith, but each time she was met with an unwavering dead glare. His eyes were still covered in the unnatural fog, which was weird for sure, but it probably had something to do with the atmosphere on that planet. It should be gone soon enough, right? Everyone knows Allura is in the wrong in this situation (herself most of all), but Keith is being uncharacteristically unforgiving and harsh.

Keith is sitting on the couch in the common room, lounging across it on his back, fiddling with the knife he holds above him, looking at it quizzically. The knife occasionally slips through his fingers, like he's inexperienced, staring at the object like it's completely and utterly alien to him. Which is more than odd, considering that guy never seems to be without his beloved knife.

Keith, however, is alone on the couch, the rest of the team deciding it's best to stay as far away from his hissy-fit as possible - not that Keith seems to mind either way. Occasionally Keith's left hand will twitch and shoot up, before going limp... and that's apparently amusing to him because he always snorts and mumbles something about 'Pesky human persistence' under his breath. Which is weird... really weird.

Lance slowly walks up to Keith, trying not to make any sudden movements, lest he spooks the poor boy. "Hey, are you doing okay?" Lance asks, slowly sitting down next to him and placing a hand on his leg, looking up at him with a supportive smile.

"Hello, Lance, I am doing well." His sentences come out robotic and forced, his voice devoid of emotion. "If you are here to lecture me about Allura… I'm afraid I'm not interested." Keith sounds professional like he's talking to royalty, and not a fellow paladin who also happens to be a reasonably close friend. His face is still lifeless, he's somehow still conveying everything he wants to say, without even so much as smiling.

"Your eyes are starting to freak me out buddy, are you sure you didn't touch anything on that planet?" Keith looks at him, with something that should have resembled shock, his eyes going wide, even as they remain uncharacteristically devoid of emotion.

A small laugh slips past his lips as he looks down at the floor. "I assure you, I am fine... beyond fine." Keith gaspes in pain for a second, grabbing his head for a moment as he groans.

“Still got that headache?” Lance asks, concern welling up inside of him.

“Haha, yeah, you could put it that way.” When Keith looks up at him his heart stops, his eyes were actually clearer than before, the glossy sheen still present, but he could actually make out the red lines of Keith’s eyes. Yeah… that’s actually not that good, his eyes should NOT be that bloodshot.

Keith grips his head tighter, dropping his head between his thighs as he groans out in pain again. "Give in, it's useless!" He hisses at nothing, his voice raising to a higher tone as he yells at himself, gripping his own hand tightly like it's working against him. "Stop screaming! He can't hear you!" Keith's screaming is getting louder, he covers his ears like there is an external sound, yet there's nothing but his own screaming filling the halls.

"Keith?! Buddy?! What's going on!?" Lance's voice is raising too as he grips his friend’s shoulders, trying to shake him out of his fit. Lances voice started to crackas dread and worry filled him. Keith looks up at him, still holding his head as he screams, dropping to the floor. One of his eyes is normal, the fog gone and emotion flooding back into them like a broken dam.

God, he looks so terrified. His eyes hold pure and unadulterated fear and despair, begging Lance to help him without saying a word. His other eye is still covered in the thick fog, constantly unchanging. "Lance, It's not true!" Keith is straining to get the words out, his airway seeming to be blocked by nothing as the words came out in wheezes. "D- don't believe it! It's not m-me!" Keith chokes out, his voice sounding a lot like his usual one, the wheezed breaths in-between each word being the only unusual part.

"SHIRO?! ALLURA?! HUNK?! SOMEONE HELP!!" Lance screams as he grips Keith, his body ceases up as he screams louder, gripping his head as the fog slowly starts to take over his free eye, drifting over the black pupil like snow on a winters night. Keith's screams are ear shattering and blood-curdling, he's pulling his hair as he huddles in a ball on the ground, fighting against himself and trying to choke out words to Lance.

"E-EM!" Keith chokes out again, looking up at lance with tears freely running out of his fogged eyes, the emotion slowly draining from them once again as the fog takes over. "EM-EMPR-" Lance gently shush Keith, singing to him in Spanish as he rums his hand over his head, his screams completely downing it out

"What is it, Keith?" Lance hugs him closer, patting his head as he tries to calm him down, the others rushing into the room at the sounds of screaming and cries for help.

"EMPRESS! SHE…HAS…ME UNDER HER-" Keith can't finish his sentence, his body goes limp in his arms, his eyes shutting and head falling to the side. His tear soaked cheeks pressing against his shirt as he lies there peacefully like he's just sleeping. The room goes silent in an instant, the only sound coming from Keith being his wheezed breaths and the occasional sob. His body twitching for a moment every so often, he's still at war with himself, albeit from the inside.

"LANCE! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Allura yells as she runs up to him, dropping to her knees as she presses the back of her hand to Keith's head. "Why is he so cold?" Lance hadn't noticed amongst the screams of panic and pain, but Keith's skin has gone ice cold.

"I-I don't know, I asked him what was wrong, and he just started screaming. He was yelling at himself in two different voices, and then just collapsed." Lance pulls him closer, feeling oddly protective of Keith, even if Allura (who has no interest in him whatsoever) is just checking his temperature. 

"Let's get him into a pod, we can monitor what's going on inside his head from there," Pidge suggests as she walks up to the group. "Can you carry him, Shiro?" Pidge asks turning to him.

"Yeah, totally." Shiro starts to walk towards Keith before Lance pulls the boy’s body closer to him, standing up and cradling Keith in his arms... oh how the tables have turned.

"It's okay, I've got him." Shiro shrugs, seeming indifferent as to who actually carries Keith, as long as he ends up in a cryo-pod in the end.

“Just get him there as soon as you can, we don’t know what’s going on, but the cryo-pod will put him in a coma-like state, whatever is going on inside of him will stop at least,” Allura explains as she helps Lance to his feet. “We can’t keep in there indefinitely, but it should buy us enough time to find out what’s going on.” Well, that's the million dollar question, isn't it? What is actually going on with Keith?


	4. Pod number 2495

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Coran, maintenance check on pod-“ Allura bends down and tilts her head so she's looking at the back of the pod. “-2495” She finishes as she looks at Keith with a weird look in her eye.
> 
> “Is something wrong princess?” Hunk asks, his face going slightly green as nerves slowly fill him.
> 
> “No. This pod is probably just busted, it’s old and all."
> 
> “You put Keith in a broken Cryo-pod?!”

Keith is standing in the Cryo-pod, his face calm and mouth in his natural scowl, which is honestly a welcomed change in comparison to his screams. Allura and Coran are off to the side looking at a large hologram full of charts, random graphs and constant moving star-like clusters as they talk to each other. Allura gestures at a set of graphs with her hand, flicking them over to a separate screen that appears and enlarges them.

Keith looks like a corpse, his skin is tight and paler than usual, his eyes sunken with clear bags under both. His hair is messy, poking out at random angles from all of the screaming he was doing not so long ago, there are clear nail marks in his left arm from when he grabbed it, blood dried under his fingers. If it wasn’t for the constant beeping, Lance would have thought Keith was dead. And… that’s not a particularly pleasant thought.

Hunk, Pidge and Lance all stand around the pod, Shiro watching from a distance. “This is weird. Is he supposed to be that still? I swear I can’t see him breathing,” Lance says as he pokes the glass a few times, staring at Keith’s chest in a purely heterosexual way. It's to check of he's breathing, not because the outfit he's in clings to him in all of the right ways, how his hair naturally falls around his face, framing it in the perf- Lance spins around that second, red in the face as he get as far away from the pod as possible. Nope, he is not going to check Keith out while he's  _unconscious in a cryo-pod_. 

“Allura and Coran are tapped into all his bodily functions if something goes wrong they’ll know,” Pidge says as she adjusts her glasses looking Keith up and down with a worried gaze. Lance knows that look, she's doubting herself, he's seen it far too many times through group assignments and overall mayhem.

“This isn’t right…” Allura says as she gripps her chin, enlarging a particular graph and set of numbers, moving them next to each other as her eyes dart between them. “This isn’t right at all.” Allura spins around, removing the remainder of the graphs and number sequences with a flick of her wrist as she walks towards the pod. “Coran, maintenance check on pod-“ Allura bends down and tilts her head so she's looking at the back of the pod. “-2495” She finishes as she looks at Keith with a weird look in her eye.

“Is something wrong princess?” Hunk asks, his face going slightly green as nerves slowly fill him.

“No. This pod is probably just busted, it’s old and all."

“You put Keith in a broken Cryo-pod?!” Lance exclaims as he tries to pry off the glass in front of Keith. Keith’s entire life is depending on the fact that this damn machine can keep his heart beating and lungs breathing in his coma-like state. If this thing breaks, so does Keith. Did Keith's breathing just stop or is Lance going crazy? He swears that beeping just got quieter, oh god he's _dead_.

“Not deliberately!” Allura huffs as she walks over to Coran, looking over his meticulous work. Suddenly a loud female voice speaks out over the speakers.

“Pod number 2495 in perfect working order, the pod is ready for patient care.” It goes silent again as everyone turns to Keith, his eyes still shut and body unmoving, not a sign of distress on his face other than the dried streaks of tears that still run down his face. Lance slowly climbs down from the pod, letting go of the glass. _Okay, Keith's fine, the pod is fine, everything is fine._

“Perfect working order? This thing is Quiznaking broken!” Allura huffs as she gvies the pod next to her a light kick. Before Allura can break out in another string of Altean curses (which would have been rather amusing), Pidge steps in.

“May I see what's wrong, Princess?” Pidge asks as she steps forward, her hands tucked behind her back.

“Of course, everyone gather around, I must as well show all of you.” Allura spins around and types in a few words before the hologram whirres back to life, charts and monitors quickly popping up all over the screen. She presses a few buttons with a satisfying beep and English translations quickly appearing next to the Altean words and Numbers. “This is Keith’s neurological function.” Allura points to a black screen that was being regularly updated, a series of flashes appearing in what seems to be a random order, thousands of flashes a second. Lance's gut churned, it reminds him a lot of fireworks on new years, thousands of flashes appearing in the dead of the night, his siblings clinging to his legs as they looked up at the sky with wonder.

“So, that’s what’s going on inside his brain?” Lance asked as he tilts his head, it looked like a whole lot of nothing to him… maybe that explains Keith's his temper, Keith's just stupid. Heh, he's definitely going to hold this over Keith's head _if_ he wakes up. His stomached churns again at the word if. Keith is going to wake up, he has to. Numbers and letters were constantly appear alongside the flashes, logging into a table next to the chart, this entire system is completely beyond Lance. Sure, he was smart (he got into the garrison after all), but this was ridiculous.

“Correct, Lance. To _grossly simplify_ this, every time one of those flashes appears, Keith’s brain is performing an action.” Flash after Flash appear on the screen, too many to even keep track of. By the time you look at one, five more have appeared and simultaneously fizzled out.

“No offence Allura, but that’s too many functions for one brain to be taking on at once,” Pidge says slowly, hoping that she wouldn’t offend the princess.

“None taken Pidge.” Everyone can see Pidge visibly relax at that. “That was my exact thinking. Here are Shiro’s logs for when he was in the cryo-pod.” Allura pulls up a second chart, with at least half of the flashes, maybe less. Each one appears for longer than Keith’s but there weren’t close to as many.

“Is it possible that the cryo-pod is just doubling the number of actions? Everything else seems to be working” Hunk speaks up this time, glancing over behind him to see Keith still standing there soundly, not moving in the slightest.

“I thought that at first too.” Allura shrinks the chart and made the number table that was logging each action bigger, highlighting key number patterns with a swipe. “If that was the case, we’d see a repetition of number patterns, but they’re all different. Each function is only being recorded once…” Lance feels like he's in a bad Sherlock episode, and he wants OUT. He also wants Keith out of the cryo-pod, but don’t tell anyone he said that. "Not to mention that doesn't explain why the flashes have a shorter duration."

“He’s got double the neurological functions, and they’re happening much rapidly then they’re intended to… It’s almost like there are two people inside of him, both frantically fighting and sending commands.” Pidge shakes her head and laughing and turning away from the screen in front of her. “But that’d be ridiculous.” Of course, Pidge doesn't give it another second of thought, it _is_ ridiculous. In most cases, the simplest and most obvious solution is the correct one, however, this isn't one of those cases.

A cold chill runs through Lance as he feels his stomach drop, his head starting to spin as his memories played back, the relentless screams of Keith being the only thing he can hear.

_"Lance, It's not true!" Keith is straining to get the words out, his airway seeming to be blocked by nothing as the words come out in wheezes. "D- don't believe it! It's not m-me!"_

_"EMPRESS! SH-SHE…H-HA-HAS…ME UNDER HER-" Keith can't finish his sentence, his body went limp in his arms, his eyes shutting and head falling to the side._

Oh god. **Oh god.** Something in Lance's brain just clicks, like a puzzle piece snapping into place in a puzzle he didn't even know he was solving, the entire picture clearly painting itself out for him. He isn't one hundred percent sure, he honestly hopes he's wrong, but it makes the most logical sense. He's never really sure of anything, being the indecisive mess he is, but this isn't something he can afford to spend a week mauling over. He has already taken more time than he should have.

“Allura!!” Lance’s sudden outburst causes everyone to jump, hunk looking like he almost jumped out of his damn skin, holding his chest as he wheezes out a ‘ _Holy mother of puddings, that scared me_ ’. Allura turns  around and looked at him weirdly, but spurs him to go on regardless. “Who’s the Empress that Keith met?” Lance asks as his mind running at lightning speed, she has something to do with this, _she has to._

Allura’s face drops, the words realisation and regret painting themselves onto her expression as her face drains of its usual colour. “Oh god, she’s in there! Why didn’t I see this earlier!” Allura run over to her desk faster than Lance can say ‘Quiznak’, typing in a few keywords before she looks over to Coran. “This is my fault! She's  breaking him from the inside out and I was too busy feeling sorry for myself!” Allura yells as she gives the cryo-pod behind her another kick, leaving a small dent, it's getting quite the beating today.

“That's why his neurological functions have doubled!” Coran gasps as he catches on to what was happening, the rest of the team still completely in the dark and growing more and more worried every second. “This is not good.”

“That moment of weakness when I yelled at him was enough for her to break through, god I’m such an idiot! Why didn’t I noticed the second I saw that damn fog,” Allura yells as she hits herself in the head, frantically typing. Keith's pod instantly shifts, the light changing from a dull white to a dark blue, a pink mist spraying down onto him from above, slowly shifting to purple as time went on. “EVERYONE OUT!!” 

While Keith is high on Lance's priority list, and without a doubt his main concern, something else is also quickly shooting to the top of his list. "PIDGE GET OFF ME!! WHY IS YOUR BUTT SO BONEY?!" When everyone was messily shoved through the door by Allura, the team fell into a pile of limbs and torsos, everyone quickly becoming tangled in each other. Lance is wedged between Hunk and Pidge, Hunk was a reasonably soft landing because that man is the literal walking embodiment of a hug, Pidge, however, is just _hard._ She isn't even that heavy, she just has boney hips that dig into Lance as everyone squirmes to get off each other.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Pidge shifts as she tries to push herself up off Lance, by pushing her hands off the smalls of his back. "You're not that comfortable yourself." Pidge eventually gives up and flops back down onto Lance's back, rolling off and hits the ground with a small 'oof'.

"You wound me." Everyone finally separates and dusts themselves off, their clothes are askew from the mayhem of being shoved out of a room and onto the floor within a period of like ten seconds.

"So did your bloody back, you really aren't that comfortable," Pidge says as she rolls her shoulders, a small crack following closely after.

"YOUR FACE WOUNDS ME! HA!" That ins't his proudest comeback, but his heart isn't in it anyway. The silence that followed shortly after is deafening, that was the time where Keith would jump in with a comment about how immature Lance was being, usually followed by mockery of his comebacks. But there is nothing but the quiet beeping behind the door they were locked on the other side of.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever makes you feel better." Pidge waves him off, spinning around on her heel as she starts walking down the hall. A wordless agreement is formed between the group of friends, they're all worried about Keith, especially after Allura shoved them out of the room without so much as an explanation. So, they agreed to continue as normal. They'll laugh and joke, do pretty much anything to take their minds off their friend and what's happening to him, even if they just end up pretending that everything is normal, it will be better than nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, if you can't tell this story is more going to be about the team trying to help Keith and find a cure, rather than discovering the issue (hence the discovery happening so early).  
> [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out!


	5. Blocked by the host

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Get out of my head! Get out of my head!**
> 
> “The computer is directly reflecting what’s inside of his head, thoughts and all,” Pidge explains, slightly taken aback as to how well her modification working.
> 
> “Are you saying that’s Keith?” Lance asked as he moved closer, placing his hand on the screen as the words deleted themselves, retyping themselves out differently each time. He can hear his voice reading the messages in his head, Keith’s annoyed tone carrying out syllables, small sighs after certain words when he's particularly annoyed.

“Come on! Come on! Come on!” Lance yells, frantically pressing the buttons on his controller as his character expertly pulls off combo attacks, he’s so close. SO CLOSE. Lance has found himself playing these games much more often, without Keith to tease or hang out with, the castle has been too quiet. Pidge and Hunk were always doing their own thing, Lance tried to hang out with them, but everything they were doing was always too advance for him. He'd end up the third wheel as they talked in gibberish.

“PALADINS! REPORT TO MEDBAY!” Lance yelps and drops his controller, his character getting critically hit in the few seconds before Lance can pick his controller back up. The screen goes black as the large red font of **GAME OVER** appears on his screen. “That includes you, Lance!” Allura says again. Lance walks through the empty halls, his stomach dropping when he passes Keith’s room, the door still wide open, his bed made and wrinkle-free. His armour is lying on his bed, dust free from the daily cleaning Hunk gave it, his Bayard neatly tucked next to it. Lance steps into the med bay, mumbling a hello to Keith out of habit as he passes his cryo-pod, eventually standing next to Hunk as Allura and Pidge stand in front of everyone, proud smiles on their faces.

“Pidge upgraded our Neural link technology, so now instead of monitoring Keith’s thoughts, we can see what those exact thoughts are,” Allura spoke as she gestures to Pidge who is happily standing next to her, looking rather proud of herself. “We can also keep track of his mental state…. Hopefully.” Allura points to the small box to her left, an LED sign that is prominently displaying the words. “ **Mental State** ”. As of right now, it is reading as **Neutral.**

Allura types in a few keywords as Pidge steps in to explain in her place. “With this information, we should be able to access certain sectors of his memory, either retaining to a person, date or key link.” Pidge pauses and looks around for an example. “Let’s say I typed in ‘Garrison’, that’d give us access to his memories from the garrison, some retaining to the people he knew there and most likely Shiro. Anything that he associates with that word.”

“So… It's like a google search bar... but for his brain?” Lance asks as he quirks an eyebrow.

“Well… It’s more we can trigger Keith to think back to those memories, and this computer will display those thoughts; think of it like we’re reading his mind.”

“OOOH!! OOOHHH! Type in me!! Type in me!!” Lance yells as he jumps up, waving his arm in the air. This is his one chance to find out what Keith really thinks about him, of course, he’s not going to waste it. This is a once in a lifetime chance, there's no way he's going to miss out of this prime mockery materal

“We must as well have a trial run," Pidge shrugs, looking over at Allura who nods wordlessly as the word Lance slowly appears on the screen in green text.

**Get out of my head!! You can’t see those!!**

**Mental state: Confusion, determination.**

A sentence appears on the screen in a red font, erasing the previous message Allura wrote. Anything Allura writes is instantly deleted, the words _‘Get out of my head’_ replacing them each time. "What is that?” Lance asks, looking to see Allura’s hands far away from the keyboard, no one touching the buttons as words continued to type themselves out.

**Get out of my head! Get out of my head!**

“The computer is directly reflecting what’s inside of his head, thoughts and all,” Pidge explains, slightly taken aback as to how well her modification working.

“Are you saying that’s Keith?” Lance asked as he moved closer, placing his hand on the screen as the words deleted themselves, retyping themselves out differently each time. He can hear his voice reading the messages in his head, Keith’s annoyed tone carrying out syllables, small sighs after certain words when he's particularly annoyed.

**PISS OFF, I’ll never let you mess around in my head!!**

**Mental state: Anger.**

“Yes… it’s him, the computer is displaying his thoughts. I didn’t think it would be able to do this in real time, if at all,” Pidge says as she fiddles with her glasses, she’s equally surprised as everyone else that this is happening, she had never intended for it to work this way.

“He knows someone his looking through his memories…” Lance whispers as he steps closer, realisation washing over him as he reads the words back over in his head. “You can trigger him to think stuff, right?” Lance asks as he turns to Allura who nods slowly in response. “Put in ‘I say Vol…’ That may work.” The screen flickers as the letters are typed out, it’s a long shot, but Lance is hoping that this will trigger his memory. Maybe it will help him realise that it’s just them trying to help.

The screen flickers to life, Hunk appearing on the screen, in his yellow paladin uniform.The background makes it clear that this is happening from inside of the castle, just by the main entrance. _“A team cheer! Like a team cheer, we can do!”_ He explained.

_“Hmm, yeah okay,”_ The video moved to the left to show Lance, holding his drink in one hand as he pointed at the screen. _“How about… I say ‘Vol’ and you say ‘Tron’.”_ Lance looked directly at the camera where the video was being recorded. _“Vol…”_

_“Uhh… Vol-tron?_ ” Keith spoke, a hand appeared in front of the camera, scratching just above it before it disappeared out of sight. The voice was coming from behind the screen, completely out of sight. Lance’s face dropped as he quirked an eyebrow and annoyed look appearing on his face as he sighed. Did Lance always look that annoyed at Keith? Is this how Keith really sees him?

“Are we watching…?” Lance says as he watches the rest of the scene play out, it’s so fucking weird to see himself from someone’s else perspective.

“Keith’s memories,” Allura finishes as the memory flickers a couple times, rewinding over the same section time and time again before it finally cuts out. The words appear on the screen again, this time slower. Special care is taken in each letter, more effort being taken up to get the thoughts across.

**You have no right to go through those… why are you doing this to me?**

**Mental state: Desperation.**

The fire that everyone knew Keith for, was extinguished. He sounds defeated and just plain tired like he’s moments away from just giving in. Without a single command, another memory appears on the screen, flickering to life as the audio crackles over the speakers. Keith is thinking of his accord, his mind drifting around as he thinks about his friends.

_“Wow, thanks, everybody!”_ Lance said as he sat in front of a bowl of space goo, the rest of the team crowded around as they watched over him. _“Sounds like even the Mice did more than you though.”_ Lance looks up at Keith, well, more the screen, but same difference.

_“What are you talking about?! I punched Sendek!”_ Keith crossed his arms, the memory had an annoyed Aura to it, but there was also an underlying feeling of… sadness? It’s hard to tell, but it has this gloomy aura; like Keith doesn’t want to be thinking back to it.

_“Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and shot is arm off,”_ Lance said as he looked at Keith again, quirking his eyebrow with a scowl on his lips. Is this really how he always looked at Keith? Lance hadn’t realized how abrasive he was being towards Keith until now, it always seemed like playful banter, but now it kind of seems like a genuine hate coming from his end.

_“We had a bonding moment! I cradled you in my arms!!”_ Keith yelled, his voice cracking as he throws his arms up, Lance dismissing him shortly after as the memory cuts off there, no flickering, no rewinds, just a blank screen and silence.

**Neural Pathway “Lance”: Blocked by the host**

**Neural Pathway “Relationships”: Blocked by the host.**

**Neural Pathway “Family”: Blocked by the host.**

**What are you doing?! Stop that! I - I don't want to wake up!! Stop!!**

The screen fills up with red error messages, popping up with loud dings, one after another as Allura is suddenly kicked out every path she tries to access, the screen quickly becomes overrun with alerts as they stack over one another. “Error! Error!” The room goes red as a female voice speaks over the speakers, more alerts popping up as all of the neural pathways close themselves off, figuratively locking Allura out.

**Mental state: Pain.**

“What’s happening?!” Hunk yells as he turns around, looking around the room frantically as the red lights flicker, the wailing of the alarm only getting louder.

“Keith is forcing me out!” Allura frantically types as she tries to remove the alerts, more appearing the second she manages to remove one. “He’s pushing me out of his mind, something is forcing him out of his coma!!!”

Suddenly the wailing stops and the lights shifting back to its usual off-white. The screen goes blank as everything disappears, Allura pulls her hands away from the keypad in shock. “You bitch!” A weak voice calls out as smoke fills the room. Lane spins around to see the glass from the cryo-pod had dissolved, Keith stumbling out as he weakly squints, coughing into his shoulder. Keith falls forward and directly into Lance’s arms, weakly gripping his shirt as he coughs into his shoulder, burying his head in the crook of Lance’s neck.

“Keith! You’re okay!” Hunk cries as he rushes up to the two, embracing them both in a tight hug, picking Keith up off the ground in the process. “You’ve been out a week!” Hunk pulls him closer, hugging him even tighter.

“You really had us worried there, Keith,” Allura says as she walks up to him and places a hand on his back. “I hope you can forgive me for my behaviour before, I feel as if I caused all of this.”

“It’s perfectly fine princess, I was never mad at you,” Keith says, looking around at everyone with fog-free eyes, something that’s a very welcomed sighed. Lance never thought he’d be so grateful to see those damn grey eyes, yet here we are.

“You gave us a real scare buddy, if Lance hadn’t carried you to the pod when he didn’t, who knows what could have happened,” Pidge says as she gives him a hug too, Keith looks up at Lance with a surprised smirk, laughing under his breath.

“Hah. I guess you carried me in your arms this time. It’s about time we evened things out,” Keith laughs as he looks Lance up and down. Lance smiles punching Keith’s shoulder lights as he scoffs, stopping mid-motion as something clicks in his brain… Carried in his arms? Lance looks at him with a quizzical look, sighing deeply before Keith turns to everyone. “Hey, food gunk sounds really good right now, is there any?” Lance quirks his eyebrow again… gunk?

“Uh yeah, can you make it to the kitchen?” Hunk asks. Lance looks Keith over a few times, something still wasn’t right. He knows he’s just being paranoid, but he can’t help the weird feeling creeping over his entire body.

“Yeah, Lance could you help me there?” Keith asks, looking over at him with a small sheepish smile, Lance nods and walks up to him, wrapping his arm around his neck as he supports his weight. “We’ll catch up in a second.” Keith takes a step forward, his legs frail as he stumbles, gripping Lance closer as he pulls him down to the ground with him.

“You okay there, buddy?” Lance asks with a small laugh, pulling him up as he stumbled to his feet. Keith instinctively pulls Lance closer, fisting his shirt as he tries to find something to hold onto.

“Yeah… yeah, just feeling a bit weak.” Keith grabs Lance tighter as they slowly walk out of the room, clinging to Lance like some kind of human koala. “Lance… I can’t feel her anymore, I think she’s gone,” Keith weakly smiles as he leans on him, slowly walking into the kitchen. "She's the one that pushed me out of my coma... but it was like she disappeared after that."

“You were probably too stubborn, she must have got sick of trying,” Lance jokes, his worries washing away as he laughs with Keith. God feels nice to hear again, laughter and idle chatter, not screams for help and the faint beeping of monitors. Yeah, he can get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, here's [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out!  
> Sidenote, I had such a blast writing this??? Like, the techonolgy side of this was just SO cool to write. Anyway, ingore me nerding out over here, I just love technology, man.


	6. An open book

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paladins, I have some great news!” Allura walks into the common room, clapping her hands to grab everyone’s attention. “Coran and I finished running our final tests on Keith, it appears that his neurological function has returned to normal levels!” Keith walks in soon after that, looking at Allura with a small smile.
> 
> “That’s great news, do you know why?” Pidge enquires as she tilts her head, leaning forward while she continues to type on her laptop.
> 
> “I’m afraid not, we can only assume that putting Keith in the cryo-pod weakened her hold over him, that she wasn’t able to control him in that state,” Allura explains as she takes a seat next to the rest of the paladins. “It’s safe to say, that this threat is well and truly over.”

The quiet sounds of a spoon scraping on the bottom of a bowl fills the otherwise silent room, everyone sits around the table quietly spooning their space goo into the mouths, a comfortable silence filling the room. Keith’s been out of the pod a week, he’s been constantly in and out of the med bay, less as less recently. When he first came out of the pod, he was in and out of the med bay every hour, if not sooner.

“Paladins, I have some great news!” Allura walks into the common room, clapping her hands to grab everyone’s attention. “Coran and I finished running our final tests on Keith, it appears that his neurological function has returned to normal levels!” Keith walks in soon after that, looking at Allura with a small smile.

“That’s great news, do you know why?” Pidge enquires as she tilts her head, leaning forward while she continues to type on her laptop.

“I’m afraid not, we can only assume that putting Keith in the cryo-pod weakened her hold over him, that she wasn’t able to control him in that state,” Allura explains as she takes a seat next to the rest of the paladins. “It’s safe to say, that this threat is well and truly over.”

Keith smiles widely, a small laugh emerging from him as he walks over to the rest of the group, sitting now next to them and crossing his legs. “What’s got you so golly?” Pidge asks with an amused smirk.

“Oh. It's just nice to be free from hi-her persistence you know? H-she never seemed to give up on fighting me. I’m happy you all believed me in the end, know knows what happened if you picked her side.” Keith stumbles through his words, mumbling and stuttering whenever he used pronouns as he sheepishly laughs. “Sorry, guess I’m still a bit drowsy.”

“It’s fine, you spent a week in a cryo-pod, we don’t expect you to be perfectly normal right away.” Hunk places a supportive hand on his back, gently rubbing as Keith smiles, nodding a few times. It’s good to see Keith back to normal, or at least as close to it as you could really get. He still ‘glitches’ occasionally, headaches returning as he stumbles over words, forgetting simple small details about his everyday life. But, Allura assures everyone that it’s perfectly natural, that they have nothing to worry about.

“Ah, great!!” Keith exclaims as he sits down in front of his food goo and instantly starts eating, not bothering with table manners.

“You’ve really been enjoying that lately,” Hunk observes with a weird look as Keith continues to eat.

“I’ve always liked it,” Keith says, not giving it much thought as he talks through a full mouth.

“No you haven’t you’ve always complained about it,” Hunk says. “The only time you said anything remotely positive was that time you said ‘my food goo is somewhat better than Coran’s’.”

“Well-” Keith pauses and looks around frantically, biting his lip as he looks down at his bowl. “- I like it now! A week in a cryo-pod can make you appreciate the little things!” Keith huffs, puffing out his cheeks as he places his hands on his hips.

Keith’s gone back to his usual routine, training from morning till lunch, stopping for a small break and food, before training again from lunch till dinner, and which point he sneaks off to the shows before dinner. It’s nice to have that routine again. The training room stopped feeling empty, instead of having the lingering memory of their injured friend, he was in there himself, beating up training robots to let off steam.

Lance, however, has been finding himself in the library more and more often, he only recently discovered that the castle had one, so he’s been sure to explore every nook and cranny he could find. It was a massive room, easily three times the size of his bedroom, every wall filled with row and rows of books, lining every shelf. In the centre is a small table with a few candles and a magnifying glass like contraption. It looks like a magnifying glass except it was twice the size and doesn’t have a handle.

Coran explained to him that was an Altean invention that can translate texts from any language, it was originally designed to me negation between species easier, but now it just sits in the library, only being used when Lance feels like brushing up on Altean culture. It’s a really nice place, it’s quiet and away from the general chaos of the rest of the castle, only populated by Mice and the occasional bug.

Today, Lance found himself reading some kind of natural history book, relating to the animal life of different planets. It was fascinating really, you’d be surprised how many species were rather humanoid. Lance only found this book because it was sitting open on the desk, left open on a particular page, the translation glass left lying on top. And really, how could Lance not snoop when there was something as inviting as that left in the middle of the library. He had never seen anyone else in here, so he was intrigued as to who was reading about Altean Animals. Which brings us to now, Lance sitting in his usual plush red chair, book open on his lap as he scans across the page with his glass.

**_I_ _mperatrix Anguis_ **

** _Danger rating: Extreme. Do not approach under any circumstances_ **

** _Basic Overview_ :**

_This animal is well known throughout Altean culture as the woman of the night. Known for its feminine charm and seductive nature, it originally lured it prey into dark caves or forest with promises of riches or whatever it’s heart desires. As time has gone on, the creature has developed a different form of hunting, known as a mind-meld._

_This connection is formed between one of the snakes and it’s chosen victim, creating a bond between the two. This bond allows the snake to manipulate its victim's body if given an opportunity to overpower the host from the inside. A common sign of someone under the control of a mind-meld is fogged over eyes and a clear difference in behaviour, however, this is a very smart animal. If it notices that you have caught on to any of its telltale signs (Personality, fogged eyes) it will change these in order to sneak by undetected._

_The host can fight back against the Empress, but this takes a lot of effort and is both mentally and physically draining, because of this Hosts can only take over the body for small bursts of time before the Empress takes back over. NOTE: The snake is not physically inside of the person's mind, it is only controlling it from inside of its den. Much like a puppet master. This is often confused and is not that case._

_Both the Host and the Empress are aware of what is happening around them at all times, anything you say to a mind-melded host can be heard by the Empress. And Vice Versa. There have been no recorded sighting of this animal since 1280, and has since been presumed extinct, however, there has been a few reports of an abnormally large snake on a planet inhabited by creates called “Bromites" (see page 28), but no sightings have been confirmed._

_If a subject suddenly starts acting normal again, advise extreme caution, it is highly possible this is another trick by the Empress. **DO NOT TRUST THEM.** The Empress may have access to their memories but often makes small mistakes, quiz the subject, if the subject makes many small mistakes that they otherwise should not (getting their birthday wrong by a month, mispronouncing close friend’s names), exterminate on sight._

Well. Fuck. Curiosity really did kill the cat.

“And here I was hoping you wouldn’t find that in time. I’m surprised you’re the one that read that, Lance.” Lance spins around to see Keith standing in the doorway, holding a matchbox in one of his hands, leaning against the door. “I was planning to burn that before anyone found out.” Keith gestures to the book in his lap, waving the matches around.

“I’ll tell Allura! She’ll put you back in the Cryo-pod!” Lance says, confidence welling up inside of him as he stares Keith down.

“Oh no! Really?! Whatever shall I do?” Keith dramatically sighs, leaning against the door with a hand pressed to his head. “I got out of that fine before, I can do it again.” Keith takes a step forward, laughing at Lance’s obvious discomfort. “Look, if you help me, I can help you.”

“How so?” Lance says skeptically, holding the book tighter to keep it away from Keith.

“I’ve read your desires, Lance, back when you placed your hand on my wall… I know everything about you. What you crave, _who_ you crave.” Keith steps forward, licking his lips as he looks up at Lance through his eyelashes. “I control Keith. You give me the book… and I’ll give you anything you want.” Keith steps forward again, wrapping his arms around Lance's shoulders as he whispers slowly in his ear, his voice smooth and sultry. _“I can be yours.”_

 Lance harshly shoves Keith away, holding the book behind his back as he glares harshly at him. “Never. How _dare_ you try and use him against me,” Lance says he holds the book tighter, his knuckles going white under his grip.

Keith sighs deeply, shaking his head. “I tried to give you an easy way out. A situation where we both get what we want.”

“I don’t want this. I don’t want Keith, at least not while you’re controlling him,” Lance seethes through gritted teeth.

“Fine, you’ve made me do this.” Keith reaches around and pulls his Galra blade out of his pocket, Keith waved the knife around in the air, looking at it as he speaks again. “I recently noticed how frail human lives are... how breakable your species is.” Keith looks up from the knife for a moment, meeting Lance’s eyes as he twirls the knife around in his fingers before he holds it up to his neck, the metal pressing harshly into the soft flesh. “If you tell anyone about your little… discovery. I’ll slit his throat right here, right now.” Keith looks up at him with an innocent look, a sadistic smile making its way across his lips. “And you don’t want anything happening to Keith… do you?”

“Kei-“

“We both know I’m not him, so don’t call me that. Now, if you say anything about our little conversation and blow this mission for me. It’s his blood on your hands.” And with that, he walks out, a small sway in his step as he cackles.

“He’s still in there?” Lance yells.   

“Of course, he is. He was the one you carried out of the cryo-pod, he’s still fighting against me… but he’s getting tired _Lance. Oh, so tired._ ” Keith turns around with an innocent smile, mockingly talking to him in a baby voice, a small pout on his lips.

“Why are you doing this?” Lance calls out after ‘Keith’.

“Because it’s fun.” Keith spins around with a sadistic smirk, poking in tongue out. “Keith is going to continue to fight against me, if you have any interest in preserving his... frail existence, I suggest you don’t assist him any more than you already have.” Keith turns to walk away, laughing one more time as he yells something other his shoulder. “Wow, he’s already crying for you to ignore me, how naïve of him.”

Lance is left in the library, closely clutching the book to his chest as he stares at the empty doorway in shock. Lance looks back at the page on the Empress, if she wanted to burn this so badly, to the point where she is openly admitting to not being Keith, there has to be something important in here.  On closer inspection Lance noticed that the entire book was on the Empress, planets she’s been spotted on, her hunting tactics, her strengths… and hopefully her weaknesses. This book had to be the key to the mystery.

Lance holds to book closer, if she wants his book destroyed, she’s going to have to go through Lance to get to it. Something in here has got to save Keith… it’s just a matter of what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out!


	7. "It's just a metaphor."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh, I’ve just been reading up on-“ Keith feels his leg lurch forward, colliding with Lance’s shin harshly. Lance’s eyes widen, his face paling as he grips his fork tighter. It’s easy to tell that Lance is debating what to do in his head, to betray Keith and keep his findings a secret from the team, or risk Keith’s life. “- Hot alien babes.” Lance glares at Keith with fury behind his eyes, nothing but pure rage and hates behind the blue sea of his eyes. It was a raging ocean, waves violently crashing onto the side of a cliff, the ocean spraying everywhere as a storm raged above.

Empty. Keith just felt empty.

It was like he was driving. He always used to have two hands on the wheel, he was in complete control. But, when he came out of that cave, it felt like he only had one hand on the wheel; he was still in control, but he was struggling not to swerve off the road. Then when Allura yelled at him, something changed. It felt like someone threw him into the backseat; he wasn’t in control, it wasn’t _him_ driving.

It wasn’t one hand off and one hand on. It was like they locked him in the trunk of the car and took the wheel with both hands. Even when he was in control, he can feel her presence in the back of his mind, pushing him to ‘ _say this_ ’ or _‘do that_ ’. It was impossible, he’d be in control one minute and the next he’d be watching from behind the scenes as someone messes around with his life.

At first, she’d fog over his vision, trapping him inside of his mind, unable to see anything but the basic outlines of the people around him. At first, that was torture, not being able to see what was happening around him when she was in control, but it was nothing compared to being able to see. It was ten thousand times worse, watching helplessly as she meddled in his life. At first, she only stopped fogging up his eyes, so the others wouldn’t notice when she was in control, but soon she noticed his torment and did to break his spirit. He was forced to watch as she blackmailed Lance, forced to scream helplessly as she wandered around the castle, threatening him about killing one of them right then and there.

He would have vivid fantasies pushed into his head by her, visions of one of them lying on the ground, helplessly gasping as they choke, coughing up blood. They’d be lying in a pool of their own blood, the pool slowly growing as they laid there helplessly, pushing against Keith weakly as he’d slam his knife into their chests, twisting and pulling out, smiling sadistically as blood spurts up into the air. The warm blood would coat his hands, his knife slipping around as he brought it down time and time again, the light in his friend’s eyes fading away, him watching helplessly from the sidelines, watching himself kill them in cold blood. His eyes were always deader than theirs, staring lifelessly, often foggy as he cackled, gripping his knife tighter.

Often the fantasies revolved around Lance, him walking up to him with his usual smile and cocky attitude, only for Keith to pounce on him, pinning his hands above his head. Everything that’d follow was something that Keith would never dream of doing, something that made his stomach churn and head spin. Countless times had she showed him one of those visions to mess with him, sending him running to the nearest bathroom to empty his stomach, his throat burning as he gaged. The worst thing is Lance would always bring a bloodied hand up to his cheek, gently rubbing it as he smeared his blood on his face, a smile making its way across his pale and blood soaked lips. “I forgive you. This isn’t you,” He’d say before his head would roll to the side, his mouth parting with a dead stare. His hand falling away from his face and to the ground with a loud, wet thud.

 _‘It isn’t real, it isn’t real_ ’ he’d find himself chanting to himself as he rocked back and forth in a corner late at night, pulling his hair as he stares at the ground with a broken gaze. Even if it wasn’t real, the real terror was in the fact that it could be, there was nothing stopping her from killing one of them in cold blood. Leaving Pidge dead on her computer before she even knew what hit her, Hunk in his lion, Lance in his room, Allura in the control room… god, there really was nothing stopping her.

It’s what he’s been doing night after night, sobbing in his room as the empress echoes around in his head, laughing innocently as she fills his mind with images. Even if he had physical control over himself, she’s still in charge, manipulating his mind until he’s broken; pieces of him shattered and littering the floor around him. She could read him like a book, a book that was forced open, his pages on display for her to see, the deepest parts of his very soul pushed into the light.

“So, overall the Lions should be 35.68% faster,” Pidge concludes, pulling Keith out of his mind daze for a minute, his body moving on its own… right, she still has the wheel. Everyone is sitting around the table, sharing stories about their days over food goo.

“That’s really good news Pidge, I knew you could do it,” Shiro says from across Keith, smiling at Pidge with his classic Dad™ Gaze.

“I can’t take all of the credit!” Pidge waves her arms around in front of her, a small blush on her cheeks from the praise. “Hunk help a bunch! I couldn’t have done it without him!!” Keith almost forgets he’s watching from the sidelines and Hunk and Pidge start arguing about how did more, some compliments laced with insults flying around such as “YOU’RE THE SMARTEST PERSON I KNOW, YOU HUGGABLE BASTARD!!”

Keith was quickly reminded of his place when the Empress noticed him forgetting that he’s not the one in control, that he’s simply an observer. Blood, Pidge was laying at her desk, a dead stare as the liquid flows out from the large gash in her neck and into the cracks between keys, her monitor flickering with her code still on it, a string of letters still typing out as her head rests on the key. She looked younger than she really was in the vision, her glasses sliding down her face, her jacket stained a deep red as her hair knotted.

“So, what’d you do, Lance?” Hunk asks as their _‘argument’_ resides. Hunk rests his head on his hands, looking at Lance with a kind smile as everyone turns to him.

“Oh, I’ve just been reading up on-“ Keith feels his leg lurch forward, colliding with Lance’s shin harshly, his finger slowly trailing past his neck as Lance looks at him. Lance’s eyes widen, his face paling as he grips his fork tighter. It’s easy to tell that Lance is debating what to do in his head, to betray Keith and keep his findings a secret from the team, or risk Keith’s life. “- Hot alien babes.” Lance glares at Keith with fury behind his eyes, nothing but pure rage and hates behind the blue sea of his eyes. It was a raging ocean, waves violently crashing onto the side of a cliff, the ocean spraying everywhere as a storm raged above. _“You know me,_ ” Lance manages to grit out, his mouth closing firmly as his grip on his fork tightens, his knuckles going white as he gives into the Empresses demands.

“Well, I just trained a lot,” He hears himself speak up, taking the attention off Lance before anyone noticed what was going on. “I’ve gotten _really good_ at using my knife.” He pulls the knife out of his pocket, twirling it around in his fingers as the blade pokes at his soft flesh, gently pushing his pale skin in as he holds it on his finger. Everyone at the table took that comment differently, some of them proud about how hard Keith is training, others slightly weirded out, but not surprised and some of them had their blood run cold. Keith and Lance were those two, both of them instantly registering the thinly veiled threat.

“That’s great Keith, I’m happy to see you’re taking your duties seriously; especially after the whole Empress fiasco!” Allura says with a clap, smiling at him warmly. 

“I am too,” Lance grits out, trying to mask the hatred in his voice with the sincerity he usually held for his teammates.

“I think we’re all proud of how you’ve recovered,” Shiro adds. Keith usually would smile at the team in moments like this, moments when they all reminded him how much he really did mean to them. However, this wasn’t a normal time, because he is still locked away, pounding on a glass window, no one seeing or hearing him.

Keith acknowledges their praises with a small hum and smile, still fiddling with his knife, often looking up at Lance and snorting at his fiery glare if looks could kill. “Calm down there, Sharpshooter, you may set the table on fire.” Keith feels the rumbling of laughter in his chest, the Empress clearly amused at the resentment Lance held towards her.

“Shut your mouth before I come over there and shut it for you,” Lance seethes as he looks up at Keith, the storm in his eyes only raging harder when Keith feels himself smirk and tilt his head to the side as a form of mockery.

“Please.” He rolls his eyes. “Like you can take me, I took control of Keith so easily? Remember?” He feels the smirk playing on his lips, his arms crossing over his chest as he looks Lance up and down.

“Huh? What the hell are you talking about, Keith?” Pidge asks as she furrows her eyebrows, a confused expression painted on her face – which was weird to see on her.

 “Oh, it’s just a metaphor.” He waves her off calmly, even if Keith could feel the Empress freaking out about her little slip-up. “You know, about how I defeated my demons, like social anxiety and all that.” Everyone seems pleased with that answer, nodding in understanding as they dove back into their own conversations, all except Lance who only grew angrier. _'Just a metaphor, my ass.'_ Lance thinks bitterly.

Lance didn’t want to think about it, but he could hear Keith crying in his room of a night, begging for her to stop, the thumping of the walls as he bashed his head against it. It was horrible, and he knew that there wasn’t anything he could do, if he walked in it’d only make things worse, it would completely shatter him if he knew someone could hear him at his point of weakness. It was always oddly comforting to hear his sobs slowly turn into small hiccups and then peaceful snores, at least when he slept he wasn’t being tormented. “What, Snake got your tongue?” Keith mocks in a sing-song tone, pulling Lance out of his thoughts, his calming thoughts about Keith quickly being replaced with rage.

Lance slams his hands down on the table, cutlery flying into the air as everyone is pulled from their conversations to see Keith and Lance both standing up, glaring at each other over the table. Keith looks cocky and rather happy about the occurrence, but Lance looks disgusted and filled with rage. Whoa! That came out of nowhere!” Pidge yells, looking at the scene unfolding in front of her.

“I’m going to my room.” And with that he storms out of the room, the doors slamming behind him as huffs out in anger, his fists tightly clenched as he stomps towards the training room, he really needed to blow off some steam before his anger got the worst of him and he lashed out at Keith. Even if he was technically lashing out at the Empress, he wouldn’t want to risk hurting Keith, especially knowing that that’s what she wanted him to do. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hah! See I actually had the title planned from the start! The 'It's a metaphor' title is in response to how Keith (The Empress) will be threatening Lance throughout the rest of the book!! ARE YOU PROUD YET MUM?!??


	8. Private conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some more development in the relationship between Keith and Lance.
> 
> A.K.A Lance being the best boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, so I don't have any time to edit, so, I'm sorry in advance for any massive errors!!  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter, I'll have another one coming out soon!
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out! No seriously, I post weekly (ish) request chapters over there!

Everyone in the castle is officially beyond confused, they were confused to start with, but this is beyond ridiculous. It’s no secret that Keith’s been acting weird, but now Lance was acting even weirder. Keith could be excused because of the clear trauma he would have gone through during the whole empress situation, but Lance? It just doesn’t make sense. One minute he’d be all smiles around Keith, laughing and joking, staying as close as physically possible to the guy.

“WHY DON’T YOU SAY THAT TO MY FACE?!” And then there were moments like this. No one could tell what was happening, Lance would be joking around with Keith like they always do, and the next thing anyone knew they’d be trying to rip each other apart… and not in the playful rival way they usually did. Actual full-on brawls. Lance is always on edge, watching everything that goes on, glaring down Keith during meetings and sometimes even yelling whenever important information comes up, blocking it out for everyone. And it’s quickly driving the rest of his team up the wall.

“Whoa! Lance! He just said that it’s too cold in here!” Hunk says, gesturing to a particularly smug Keith.

“He’s wearing his jacket!! He can't be cold!!” Keith’s lounging around in his chair, his legs on the control panel casually as picks at his nails. He's decked out in his usual outfit, short jacket and all.

“So? It’s pretty short…”

“WE’RE NEXT TO A SUN!” Lance yells, gesturing wildly at the window next to them. Blueish white light is flooding through the windows as the castle uses the gravitational force of the sun to basically slingshot them into a different part of the solar system – of course, that means that the entire castle is basically the temperature – to quote Pidge – of Satan’s armpit. Everyone is lounging around in the control room, preparing to jump into their lions and assist in moving the castle if necessary. Of course, that means Allura can hear all of their 'senseless' bickering. 

“I get you have a rivalry or whatever, but Lance, leave Keith alone,” Allura orders from over at the control panel, her voice more annoyed than mad. Lance has to bite his tongue to stop himself from screaming about how that isn't Keith, that they're all blind and putting the entire team at risk.

“A castle of idiots. I trapped in a castle full of idiots,” Lance mumbles to himself in shock, hitting his forehead as he pushes himself up off his chair, he walks out of the doors without another word. He thought it was a good idea to try and drop hints that Keith… isn’t Keith, but clearly it hasn’t gone to plan.

He walks down the halls, his footsteps echoing like thunder in the deathly silent castle, his thoughts swirling around in his head like hurricanes. He’s been spending days and days just reading everything and anything he can find on the damn Empress, but no one seems to know anything about her. All the information he could find was in the Altean book, and even then, it was vague at best.

He lazily presses his hand to the scanner outside his room, the door sliding open with a loud beep that echoed around through the halls for a few seconds. He lies down on his bed, facing the wall as he collapses out of pure exhaustion. He doesn't even bother to take off his shoes and he just lies there. He stares at the blank wall and he thinks to himself, his brain desperately wracking through everything that happened throughout the day, looking for _something_ he can use as a weakness against the Empress. But, NOTHING. She never lets her guard down, always keeping Keith on guard and Lance at an arm’s length, never giving him a chance.

Another loud beep fills his quiet room, the mechanic whirr of his door following soon afterwards. “What do you want, scales?” Lance says without turning around, his back facing the door as his shoulders remain hunched over in a closed position.

“How’d you know it was me?” Keith is standing in the open doorway, his arms crossed over his chest as he glares at Lance with an upturned eyebrow. “I’m surprised you’re the one who can tell who’s who,” Keith says, walking into Lance’s room uninvited, not caring as the door slides shut behind him.

Lance groans and rolls over, sitting up to glare at the Empress. “Unsurprisingly, you’re not Keith, therefore I can tell when you’re on control,” He says as sarcasm practically drips from his voice, his words cutting deep like knives without even having an effect on the empress, Keith’s expression remaining one of amusement. It’s always weird to interact with Keith when the Empress is in control, it’s never actually him but he can’t help but call him by his name. It’s him, but it’s not at the same time.

Keith hums and steps closer, his gaze dead as he smiles emptily. “I thought I put up a good front,” Keith says before pausing smacking his lips and laughing. “Everyone else seems to believe it though.”

His cocky grin sends Lance into a spiral, anger and adrenaline alike coursing through his veins, his vision practically going red. Before he can even think about what he’s doing he’s got Keith’s jacket clenched in his fist, pulling him backwards. He twists around so Keith is behind him and shoves him down onto the bed, pinning his hands above his head. Keith thrashes momentarily, hissing through clenched teeth before he gives in, going limp under Lance’s steel grip.

“Wow, finally took up on my offer?” Keith mocks, tilting his head to the side as he visibly checks Lance out. “Keith will be so disappointed that you gave in. Shame really, he had hope for you.” Lance grips tighter, his hands making clear red marks on his pale skin. That’s going to bruise for sure.

“Whatever you’ve got planned, it’s not going to work. I’m not talking about the power of friendship bullshit where we’ll defeat you with _love_ ,” Lance says, his voice rough and deep, “We’re smart and damn persistent. Once the rest of the team catches onto your little game. It’s lights out.”

The room is beyond tense as they stare – Well, more like Glare – at another, neither side wavering. Lance could see a flicker of emotion in Keith’s eyes, something he rarely (if ever) sees when the Empress is in control. It’s impossible to mistake… she’s scared. The emotion is gone as soon as it comes as she forces a neutral expression back on Keith’s face.

“Fine, you can have your precious time with him, but don’t forget,” Keith says calmly, his words like ice, “ _I’m_ the one in control here.” And with that she ‘clocks out’, life flooding back into Keith’s eyes as he gasps loudly.

“She’s scared! S-she’s worried!” Keith laughs in shock, his eyes wide as his mouth parts in shock, his lips upturned in a small smile. Lance lets go that second, crawling off of Keith to sit down on the bed next to him. “Do you know what this means!?” Keith sits up, uncharacteristically happy as he laughs again in shock.

“When she comes back she’s going to unleash hellfire?” Lance jokes, the once tense atmosphere slowly melting as they sit together and just talk. They’re sitting next to each other, their knees almost touching as they sit on the side of Lance’s bed, their legs dangling over the side. They’ve never felt so alone… even with the team a few rooms over, and each other to confide in… It’s them versus the world. Sometimes, Keith is trapped inside his mind, and Lance is locked on the other side of the door.

Keith laughs weakly, his shoulders slumping forward as he rests his forearms on his knees, his head dropping down. “That’s for sure,” Keith says, “I can feel her… she sees you as a threat, Lance.” Keith looks up at him, his posture small and weak as he sits there, his flaws laying out in front of the two of them. Lance always forgets that Keith can feel everything the empress does, every thought, every emotion, every plan. He feels it all.

“I guess that’s progress,” Lance says as he runs a hand through his hair, a long sigh slipping past his lips. “How the hell did we get into this situation, Keith?” Neither of them have an answer, the silence that fills the room doing all the talking for them.

“Sometimes it feels like I’m stuck in that shack again. Isolated, alone… just me and my thoughts,” Keith mumbles, his hand shaking slightly as he bounces his leg up and down. Lance always thought about the shack as some kind of vacation, somewhere where you could spend a few weeks to find yourself and reconnect with nature… but Keith was alone for a year. No one to talk to, the thoughts that Shiro was dead, the idea that no one would notice that he was gone.

“Hey, you’ve got me now,” Lance says, gently placing his hand over Keith’s shaking one. “I’m not going anywhere.”


	9. One at a time

“KEITH!! What happened out there?!” Shiro yells, violently slamming the doors of the med bay open. Keith jumps in his chair, still cradling his injured arm as he looks at Shiro with a pleading and terrified gaze. He feels his stomach swell with worry, a bubbling feeling of guilt in his gut even if he wasn’t really the one to blame.

“I- I swear I didn’t mean to!” He starts explaining, desperately fumbling over his words as he winces slightly as he moves his arm too quickly, the blood-stained sling hanging messily over his neck.

“YOU DIDN’T MEAN TO?! YOU ALMOST SHOT ALLURA!!” Shiro moves closer, glaring hard at Keith as he does so, his tone is forceful and cuts Keith deep. Shiro is mad, his hand faintly glowing pink as he clenches it. “If Lance hadn't acted so quickly and tackled her out of the way-“

“Shiro… please,” Keith pleads, looking up at his mentor and close friend. He doesn’t want to think about what could have happened if Keith wasn’t naturally a terrible shot, or if Lance wasn’t watching Keith so carefully at all times. _He doesn’t want to._

“- She'd be dead!!” He completely disregards Keith as rage fills him, nothing but the concern for his team passing through his head. No logic, no questions about _why_ or _how_. Just that it happened. 

“I’m sorry! I-it was an accident, I swear it wasn’t my fault!” Keith stutters, Shiro’s iron gaze throwing him off as he glares daggers at the red paladin.

“Shiro, calm down… I know what it looks like, but it really wasn’t his fault…” Lance says as he tries to defend Keith, his voice low in an attempt to calm Shiro down; Lance is the only one that really knows what happened. “You know I’d be the first person to jump to Allura’s defence, but this is a complicated situation.”

Shiro sighs and rubs his temples. The anger slowly melting out of his body as his shoulders slump down. "Right... I'm sorry. God, okay... Keith, just tell me what happened.” Last week when Lance jokingly said that the Empress would come back and unleash hellfire over the castle, he didn’t know just how right he was. He really should have known that something was wrong when she disappeared for a week, he should have known she was planning something and she wouldn’t just cut Keith a break. He should have, but he didn’t.

Lance was an idiot – Keith too. When Lance had his little spiel about friendship and how he (and the rest of the team) would always be there for Keith, he unwittingly exposed their greatest ‘weapon’: That there’s strength in numbers.

And now… god… they both screwed up so badly.

Now, the Empress has a goal to turn the team against Keith. One at a time.

* * *

 

The mission was like any other, just a simple trip to a nearby planet to try and gain some new alliances, maybe from Voltron a few times to impress the locals a few times – you know, the usual. They had just arrived, and everything was going swimmingly.

Keith was in the best mood out of all of them actually. Usually, he’d sit out of missions at the risk of the empress gaining control halfway through, but he was feeling good about the mission and was willing to risk her taking control. Not to mention it always took her a good three to four minutes to gain control, so he was signal Lance if anything was going to happen.

That was their plan, Keith would fight the empress as long as he could, or until Lance could subdue him. Of course, they were both just hoping that she would show up, and as stupid as it was, their code word was ‘banana’. Purely because Lance found it hilarious and Keith assumed that no one would be saying it out of context.

“Pidge! On your left!” Shiro yelled over the helmet coms. A fleet of Galra soldiers had tracked to the planet and were attacking mercilessly. No matter how many they took down, more popped up. According to a very frantic Allura, the planet they were on was under Galra control and was home to very valuable minerals that were used as a catalyst for quintessence. Suffice to say the Galra weren’t going to let Voltron take the planet without a fight, and a fight was sure as hell what they gave.

“I’ve got it! Hunk, throw me.” Oh god, here we go. Pidge and Hunk had this move they liked to call the ‘Punk death twirl’ and the move was as flamboyant and extra as the name made it seem. Hunk would lift Pidge into the air and lob her across the field, throwing her in a perfect arch as she’d extend her whip and spin through the air. It’d tangle and knock out countless enemies – and was also too eccentric for Keith to handle.

As much as Keith found the move tedious and a waste of energy (and he really did), he couldn’t deny that it worked. Within a few minutes – and countless Pidge tosses – the Galra had retreated. Keith was ready for their usual celebrations: a fancy dinner, a few tours of the lions, lance flirting with the locals and so on and so forth.

“Hey Keith, sharp work samurai, you did good out there,” Lance said as he threw his arm around Keith’s shoulder, patting his back as he did so. Keith was actually pretty proud of himself too, he went through a whole battle without any input from the empress – maybe he really was making progress. Lance eventually walked away, and that was probably where everything went wrong.

Keith went to walk over to Allura and Shiro when his foot kicked something in the dirt, whatever it was flew across the field with a loud clatter. Consider his interest peaked. No one else seemed to notice the commotion, causing Keith to investigate further, he bent down and picked up the object, the cold sting of metal registered in his head as he picked it up.

He hummed lowly as he turned the object over in his hand, he blew away the dust and was met with an unsettling purple glow, and oh so familiar markings trailing up and down the metal, it was a Galra weapon – a gun to be more precise.

He looked back up to Shiro and Allura, he thought that maybe Pidge could do with the weapon, maybe she could use some of their tech for a project of hers; you never know what that girl’s up to. When Allura turned around and laughed loudly, there was a tell-tale snap in the back of his mind. She wasn’t looking and her guard was completely down.

Keith was preparing to scream the code word, no matter how stupid he looked. He took a deep breath and then his mouth clamped shut before he got a single sound out. _“Man, you’d be surprised what a week of relaxation will do for my strength.”_ He heard the voice get louder and louder in his head, his blood running cold as the whispering filled his mind. He could feel his muscle twitching under his skin, his entire body felt like it was on fire as the Empress made her appearance yet again. 

Keith was ready to fight, surely Lance would notice that he was in distress, he knew what to look out for. He had to. Keith was going to cause some kind of commotion, anything to get their attention. He was going to scream, run, jump – ANYTHING, just to make sure that Allura was paying attention and could get out of harm’s way. He couldn’t even move, the usual flickering of his power as the empress took over was gone, there was no slow battle for control. She won before it even started, kicking him into the empty void of his own mind before he could even process it.

He felt his hand wrap around the cold metal of the gun, a single finger wrapping around the trigger slowly, almost mockingly slow. His movement were barely noticeable, it was purposely long and drawn out for the Empresses entertainment. 

The next moments went by in a blur, the gun was raised in front of him, covering his vision in a sea of purple – it was aimed directly at Allura’s head. Lance laughed and turned towards Keith, his mood instantly shifting when he saw the gun and the distant look in his eye; if you could even call it ‘his’ eye. Everything was fuzzy and muddled, nothing made sense.

There was a blur of blue across the field in front of him, a loud scream, three gunshots and a dull pain in the back of his head. It wasn’t a blunt pain like he had been hit by something, it was a burn, an internal ache that refused to go away. It was new, and sure as hell unwanted. 

He was dragged away by Hunk, the yellow paladin apologising the whole way as he manhandled Keith. There were still distant screams in the distance, they were confused and started, not pained. Keith was sitting on a bench in the med bay, Pidge and Hunk crowded around him as they stitched up his arm. He dislocated it when he dropped the gun away so suddenly and punched his own arm – he honestly didn’t even remember fighting back.

Then the doors violently slammed open, a fuming Shiro and a pleading Lance following close after “KEITH!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, here's [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out! No seriously, I post weekly (ish) request chapters over there!


	10. Fraying at the edges

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, real quick. I can't believe how well this story has been recived?! I'm getting so many comments about where the story is headed or about how much people what's happened so far. So thank you guys so much, it really motivates me to get these chapters out!!  
> And fret not! This will have a happy ending! All of this angst will be worth it I swear!

This could probably be considered the point in Keith’s life where things went from worse... to astronomically bad. Things had already gone from bad to worse a long, long, time ago, but this is the cherry on top of the shitty cake that is Keith’s life.

He’s been lucky (if you can even call it that) that throughout the time that the Empress has had him under his control, Red has still allowed him to pilot her. Red would still let down her shields and let him into the cockpit. Red has always been a safe place, one where he can feel somewhat calm in the wild storm that is his life.

He could sit in her cockpit and just think, just sit there for hours and watch the world fly by. Hell, sometimes worlds would literally fly by as they flew through galaxies together. But, his luck was bound to run out eventually.

“Keith?! What’s taking so long?” Allura asks, looking through the castles machines to see that the Red lion is still well and truly in its hangar.

“We’ll… Uh - We may have a small technical issue over here,” He says as he looks up at the massive robot, the lion sitting back calmly as it looks down at Keith, it’s eyes glowing a faint yellow.

“Is it about… you know who?” Lance asks this time, his voice hushed.

“Oh my god,” Hunk interrupts, the smile almost tangible in his voice. “Voldemort is in the castle.”

“No Lance, it’s just-” Keith interrupts himself with a loud groan, leaning back as he kicks the blue shield protecting the lion. “Red won’t let me in.” His kick sends ripples across the forcefield, the entire thing vibrating as Red remains active yet protected.

“I’m getting readings that’s she’s online.” There’s some beeping in the background as she continues to check through maintenance logs and general background logs on the lion. She’s not scratched or broken, so there’s no reason for her to be hiding. Plus, Red – much like her paladin – has never been one to miss out on training.

“Yeah, that’s the weird thing.” Keith looks back up at the yellow eyes staring down at him with an intensity that shakes him to his very core. Red is sure as shit a temperamental lion (if that time that Keith almost died trying to gain her trust is anything to go off), she’s never acted like this before. From the time she let him into the cockpit, all the way up until now… she’s never locked him out. If anything, he’s complained about him not taking her out more often.

“She’s online, but her shield is up. She active because I’m here, and she’s purring and shit... but, she won’t let her shields down. It’s like she still wants me as her paladin but doesn’t want me in the cockpit right now.” Can lions just not want to be piloted some days? Is that a thing? They are sentient after all… so maybe she’s just too tired to ride.

“Maybe it’s because he almost shot Allura,” Pidge suddenly says, the silence that follows is almost defending. The distant sounds of mechanical whirring throughout the castle seeming like screams as everyone goes silent.

“Pidge…” Someone whispers, Keith doesn’t even know who at this point, he doesn’t have the energy to pay close enough attention to work out who. His entire mind is filling up with the same thought. ‘No one trusts you. They think you’re a monster’ That thought slowly transforms into a single voice.

 _“You and I are both monsters, Keith. That’s why we found each other, we’re both heartless.”_ It the same voice he’s come to fear, something that makes him want to cower in a corner and fight everything in a fifty-foot radius all at the same time.

“What! We were all thinking it!!” Pidge exclaims, the silence that follows speaks volumes. Everyone was really thinking that, weren’t they? “He’s been acting shady for weeks! All I’m saying is maybe Red doesn’t trust him right now, I know I wouldn’t!!”

“WELL, YOU AREN’T!! WHEN YOU’RE A SENTIENT ROBOT LION, THEN YOU CAN RANT ABOUT KEITH!! BUT UNTIL YOU ARE YOU CAN SHUT UP!!” Lance is suddenly yelling over the speakers, his voice holding a level of rage he didn’t think possible for him.

“Why the hell are you defending him?” Pidge almost sounds disgusted, her voice dripping with distaste as she talks down at Lance. As much as Keith thinks she’s being unreasonable (and she really is), he can’t really blame her either. He’d be doing the exact same thing if he was in their shoes. Honestly, he’d probably do worse.

“Why the hell aren’t you! You know nothing about what he’s going through right now!” Lance is right. None of them know anything about his situation. They all saw him acting somewhat normal after he came out of the pod and assumed that everything was a-okay. That he’s just being his typical _‘emo, loner, hot-headed self’._

“WELL, NEITHER DO YOU!!” Pidge is yelling too at this point, Hunk mumbling in the background as he tries to calm the two paladins down.

“I KNOW MORE THAN-” Keith takes off his helmet and throws it across the hangar with a loud scream, the clear visor cracking down the middle as it hits the wall. There’s still a distant sound of screaming as the speakers in his helmet echo around the room, the blue and green paladins only escalating in volume.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!” Keith screams as he kicks the lion’s particle barrier, stronger shockwaves jolting through the field, but nothing changes. “I GAVE UP MY ENTIRE LIFE TO FIGHT IN THIS DAMN SPACE WAR, AND NOW YOU’RE TOO GOOD FOR ME?!” He kicks again, and again, and again. Blue specks fly across the room with every kick, his rage only growing as the lion continues to stare down at him with yellow eyes. Not once moving.

“UGH!! YOU’RE SUCH A-” He breaks out in a series of groans and frustrated grunts, making vague motions with his hands as he pulls at his hair. “I’M SO OUT!” With that Keith storms out of the hangar, Red still refusing to move as the doors violently slam shut behind him. He feels like a teenage girl whose parents refused to buy him the latest iPhone. But you know, he’s being mind controlled by a massive snake instead… but that’s _basically_ the same thing. 

Keith storms into his room, not even bothering to input the lock code as the door slides shut. He throws his jacket into the corner of his otherwise empty room, the knife sitting on his shelf being the only personal touch the room has. It’s completely bare, the exact same as the way it was when he first found it.

Maybe it’s a part of him that isn’t used to having a place to call home, that this isn’t his room, it’s just a room that he so happens to be using until he’s kicked to his next place. Like the countless foster homes, or the garrison… or even his desert shack. He’s never really had somewhere where he’s called home, he’s just been jumping from one place to another his whole life.

He rolls onto his back and stares at the ceiling. He thinks back to his previous foster homes, his previous guardians… but nothing. There are snippets he remembers from each place. Brown hair, farm and nice cows. Or cigarette smoke, pizza and empty beer bottles. He really can’t remember anything. Some were definitely nicer than others, but none were particularly amazing. 

He’s so caught up in replaying the snippets that he doesn’t notice the flood of light in his room until someone clears their throat by the door. “Go away, Lance. I don’t need pity right now.” Keith rolls onto his side, away from the door as he stares at the grey wall. Hmm, he’s never noticed the cracks in it until now, fascinating. He may just stare at this for the next fifteen to twenty minutes, or until Lance leaves.

“I just thought you’d like someone to talk to, after what happened back the-”

“I SAID I’M FINE!!” Keith snaps, he’s suddenly hit with a wave of guilt as his voice echoes through the room. He rolls back over to face Lance. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little stressed right now.

“You have the right to be. You’re dealing with the more shit that any of us have, or probably ever will,” Lance sits down on the floor next to Keith’s bed, resting his back against the metal as he cranes his neck to look at Keith. “Pidge has just had a rough day, I’m positive she didn’t mean what she said about how you’ve been a burden lately.” Keith bristles and looks away, not having the heart to tell Lance that he stopped listening by that point. He’s trying. It’s the thought that counts after all.

“I feel like I should just leave the team.” He doesn’t notice Lance flinch at that. “I’m messed up, I’m a risk for the team.”

“Keith, no you’re not-”

“Yes, I am Lance! I don’t have control over my emotions enough as it is thanks to my Galra heritage… but now I can’t even control my own body half the time! Someone else is always listening, she’s always just _there_! Even if she’s not acting she’s mocking me with the fact that she can!!”

“Keith, liste-”

“Do you know what she shows me, Lance?!” He knows he needs to shut up before he makes this worse, but he can’t stop himself. He’s rambling, spiralling as he pours his heart out. “Every hour of every day she’s showing me what she can do, what she’s going to do.”

 _‘Shut up! Shut up! You need to stop Keith. You’re going to scare him.'_ He can’t tell this if this is him or the empress talking, or if they’ve amalgamated into a fusion of the two in his mental breakdown. That scares him most of all, the idea that they're not so different, that the Empress and him are slowly becoming one equally messed up person. That he's no better, that he's one slip up away from being just as bad as her.

“Ke-”

“She’ll make me drop my knife just to show how easy it is to overpower me, she’ll force thoughts into my head.” The words are clawing at his throat, his entire body screaming for him to not let them out. But the deed was already done. “ **I’VE SEEN YOU DIE MORE TIMES THAN I CAN COUNT!** ” Everything was out on the table, Lance left with the one pieces of information Keith was trying so desperately to protect him from.

Keith doesn’t realise he’s crying until he feels the soft splat of a tear against his clenched fists. He raises a hand to feel his damn cheeks, tears freely running down as they drop onto his pants, soaking through the fabric.

Lance doesn’t know what the say, let alone think. Keith’s a reserves person, someone who hides his emotions until he can’t anymore. He bottles everything up until he explodes, and here he is; openly sobbing in front of Lance. It isn’t pretty crying either, one where a single tear runs down your check as you sniffle a little bit. Each hiccup is overflowing with so much emotion it’s almost unbearable, every single tear that slips down his face revealing another crack in his facade.

“Every time she takes control, I’m **_prettified_ ** that it’ll be the time she finally follows through on her threats. Every single time I feel a twinge in my gut I’m terrified that it’s her taking control again.”

Lance acts first and thinks later, he quickly sits up on the bed and pulls Keith into his arms, wrapping the smaller boy into the warmest hug he can muster. Keith isn’t a hugger – not by a long shot – yet he can’t help but pull Lance closer. He clings like a touch starved Koala as his hand's fist into Lance’s shirt.

“No one thinks you’re a monster,” Is the first thing Lance says to break the silence that fell around them.

“But I’m a Galra-” This time Lance is doing the interrupting.

“No, you’re Keith. There’s a big difference. None of us ever thought differently of you, even Allura. She just took longer to realise that,” Lance says. He knows for a fact that if push comes to shove the team would (and will) trust Keith with their lives. They’re a team, a family. Some stupid snake won’t change that.

Lance slowly runs his hand through Keith’s hair, slowly and cautiously just in case it proves another panic attack in Keith. When it doesn’t, he can’t help but let out a sigh of relief. Keith’s sobbing as slowly been reduced to sniffles as he continues to rest his head against Lance, neither of them having the need to pull away.

“If the rest of the team knew what you were going through, they’d understand why you’re acting the way you are. Shiro would be insanely proud, Hunk would hug you and never let go, Pidge may actually cry and Allura and Coran may actually let us go on a holiday. You’ve coped ridiculous well with what’s been going on, and once we find a way to stop it, everyone else will understand it too,” Lance says as he continues to run a gentle hand through Keith’s hair. This is always what Lance did to his siblings when they were crying, it’s just second nature at this point.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Keith is babbling into his shirt in his delirious state, months of built-up emotions finally flooding out in a matter of minutes, every single second of self-doubt flowing out of his mouth before he can even stop it.

Up until now, Lance has never really thought about how badly this has been affecting Keith. It’s always been distant, quiet crying through walls or destressed gazes across tables. It’s never been this intimate, something that he’s had a hand in stopping. He’s sure as shit more motivated to stop this, seeing Keith cry is enough to break him.

It’s different to see a girl cry after a breakup, or when his brother cries after he trips in the playground. Those were over as soon as they happened, they were crying for the sake of crying. Not because they couldn’t do anything else _but_ cry, like Keith. It's the point where someone is so broken but they can't do anything but hold back, where everything comes crashing down around them in a massive heap.

Lance pulls Keith closer as he glares at the closed door in front of him, imaging the foggy eyed Keith standing there with a wicked smile, a single bloody knife hanging from his left hand. He glares until the vision disappears, nothing but the silver door in its place. He knows he going to have to eventually, but for now, he’s not letting go.

\--

The next day, they can’t form Voltron. Regardless of how hard everyone tries; the team dynamic has clearly shifted. No one is surprised, but everyone is angry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out! No seriously, I post weekly (ish) request chapters over there.  
> Love you guys!!


	11. A small black orb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so prepare yourself because this is a pretty plot heavy chapter. It isn't that long, but this has some really important stuff for the future, so pay attention!! A lot of this will come into play in the future.

Keith can’t see anything, everything is pitch black for miles. The void is all around him, above him, below him; he doesn’t even really know what’s up or down anymore. Wherever he is, is empty and cold. It’s quiet, his own breathing sounds like thunderstorms, his heartbeat like earthquakes that shake the void he’s found himself in. He can’t feel anything, it’s like he’s floating on water without the sensation of water pressed against his back, his legs dangling out in front of him as he floats through nothing.

The constant thundering of his chest slowly becomes white noise as the void engulfs his senses, nothing but darkness surrounding him from every angle. Suddenly there’s a blinding white light, a massive explosion unlike any other. His ears ring, his eyes slam shut as the ripple of the explosion shoots across the void. Suddenly it isn’t a void anymore, his vision is filled with a soft purple light, small orbs float past him as his body adjusts to the new surroundings.

His feet are finally planted on solid ground as the blue sky above him shines down brightly on the perfectly green grass. Purple, blue, green – almost any colour he can imagine – orbs float around him, small squeaks echoing through the field. A green orb shoots into the ground and a flower grows in its place, a tall winding rose bush pops out of the ground in a series of green sparks.

Keith’s high, isn’t he? He did tell Hunk to stop cooking with random Alien fruit he finds. Whatever that explosion was, it caused these orb creatures to poof into existence, the thousands of creatures weren’t here moments ago, yet, now they are. He watches as the lights interact, tiny squeaks of different pitches echoing in his head. He can’t help but smiles as a yellow creature bumps into his cheek, a small zap shooting through him as the ball drifts past.

He notices that each creature seems to hold a different power, the green ones float around trees to make them grow faster; the red drift around animals and protect the young of other creatures while the parents hunt; the yellow cause minor thunderstorms; the blue can make it rain… and the black?

Off to the side, away from the rest, is a single black orb creature, hidden in the shadow of a looping willow tree. Something in the back of his mind is echoing the word _‘radia’._   Is that what these creatures are called? He walks over to the smaller black creature, the blackish light radiating from it swamping the tree is a grey shadow. Is it injured?

Keith reaches out to touch the animal (creature? spirit?) as it shoots away, a massive puff of smoke enveloping his hand as it passes through where the creature once was. The smoke doesn’t burn, it’s a dull ache that reminds him of when his foot falls asleep, a quiet tingling sensation shooting through his body. Something is familiar about it like it’s a weaker version of something he’s accustomed too. The smoke dissipates into the air as the black ball zips around him, the black glow flashing in front of his eyes.

Curiosity did indeed kill the cat, but didn’t satisfaction bring it back? Keith kind of has to know what this black orb does now, there are thousands of each colour drifting around the field, yet this is the only black one he’s seen. It’s peculiar. The small black orbs drifts away from Keith. He watches as a small white rabbit hops across the field, it’s nose twitching as it happily eats the berries off of a small bush, a red radia drifting away from it momentarily. At that moment the black radia from before launches forward, a stream of smoke behind it as it shoots through the air. The rabbit squeaks in shock for a moment, but only a moment.

Later a black rabbit with a small spot of white on its back hops by his feet.

* * *

 

Keith shoots out of bed with a loud gasp, his heart pounding for no apparent reason. The sight of the orangish-yellow light that’s flooding in from under the cracks of his door is instantly calming, the quiet humming of the castle slowly puts his nerves at ease. He’s safe, he’s not on some weird alien planet with light-ball-creature-things. 

He momentarily shakes off the thought, it was only a stupid dream. He pulls himself out of bed, a small yawn slipping past his lips as he tries to shake the sleep off of his body, his entire body still feeling heavy and weak. He slowly shakes off the stress of his dream and shoves it to the back of his mind to be quickly forgotten about,

He slowly steps out of his room, running his hand through his hair with a quiet groan, his body creaking like an old house as he steps through the halls. He can’t seem to shake off that dream, why did it feel so real? It’s not like Keith’s never had a vivid dream (or hallucination in his garrison days… thanks Matt), but it’s never been like this. It was so… different. It’s hard to describe, it’s like he can still feel the tingling in his arm from the smoke, or the zap from that yellow orb.

He can hear the quiet sound of idle chatter drifting through the halls, it isn’t the usual giggly chatter that fills the castle. It’s serious, only one person is talking at a time while the rest of the team presumably stands and listens. The doors for the main control room are closed tightly, the conversations on the other side muffled as each voice slips through the cracks and ends up sounding the exact same.

“-e’ll land on the planet in around five or so hours, then we’ll go talk to the loca-“ Keith walks in with a loud whoosh from the doors slide open for him, everyone turns to him as he steps in. He slowly rubs his eye and weakly waves at them.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Keith asks as he steps towards the holographic table in the centre of the room. Projected 3-D map is a model of a planet, one covered in large mountain ranges and deep cave systems.

Allura looks around frantically, almost silently pleading for someone else to take her place. When everyone remains deathly silent she sighs deeply and looks up at Keith. “Look, we completely understand if you’d rather stay on the castle; or even in Red so you can stay off the planet,” Allura says, her voice quivering ever so slightly.

“Allura, is everything okay?” Keith asks slowly, glancing around at everyone else who seems just as flustered.

“Yes, Keith. Everything is fine, it’s just that.” She clears her throat and gestures to the boy standing next to her, who’s surprisingly the calmest of the group. “During our last Galra attack… some damages were done to the castle. We’re not too sure how it happened, but it did.” Keith’s still confused, why is everyone so worried about him joining them on the mission? He’s just as capable as the rest of them, sure he’s a horrible shot, but he’s skilled in hand to hand combat. What’s the fuss?

“What do you mean ‘you don’t know how it happened’?” Keith finds himself falling into an endless spiral of questions, everything Allura answers one ten more seem to spring up. It’s like the weirdest game of whack-a-mole Keith has ever played.

“Well, it’s hard to describe. Usually, if any damages occur during a Galra attack its external damages or blown circuits… but it almost looks like someone shot a hole right through the Galra positioning system – or GPS for short,” Pidge explains. It’s impossible to miss her accusing looks as she talks about how it looks like someone shot their systems, that it was internal sabotage. It’s not a secret that she doesn’t trust Keith right now, and she’s not afraid to share her opinion.

“Anyway, the only place we can find the materials to fix the GPS… is on…” Allura trails off, mumbling the rest under her breath as she looks away, rushing over the words with a quick cough.

“Where, Allura,” Keith can feel himself slowly growing brasher, his anger seeping through as the conversations begins to draw out for far longer than it needs to.

“Bromanita.” Keith has to sound out the word phonetically again in his head, _bro-man-i-tea-a?_

It clicks in that instant, the whole reason the team was meeting without him, why Allura was so careful about giving him to option to opt out of the mission. That was the planet where the Empress is. He feels his heart lodge in his throat, his stomach dropping to his feet as everything processes through his head.

One thought surfaces above the rest. It can’t be a coincidence that the **one** thing they need to repair a suspicious and unexplainable damage on the ship (that strongly points to foul play) is on the planet where the Empress lies in wait. Keith can’t lie, his first thought is immediately if he was responsible for the gunshot. But, for the first time, he knows that he’s not at fault. He doesn’t have a gun, he’s been sleeping all day and he’d defiantly remember something as substantial as shooting a control panel. So, who:

1) Has access to a gun

2) Has access to the main control room.

3) Has something to gain by going back to that planet?

Everyone in the castle is well aware of the fact that this wasn’t just a technical error, where something bugged out and then exploded. Someone in this castle is responsible for sending them back into the belly of the beast. The real question, is who?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HINT!!  
> Pay special attention to Keith's dream, it'll come to be very important later.  
> Also, look back over checklist at the end of the chapter, it strongly hints as to who's responsible for the malfunction.


	12. A heated argument

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, big chapter. Big reveals... trust me, the past few chapters will start to make a _lot_ more sense soon, so stick around!! A few people have already guessed what's going to happen, so good on you guys!! Keep leaving your theories in the comments, I seriously **love** reading them.

As the castle doors open, the tension that fills the halls refuses to dissipate, the air strangling and choking each of the paladins even as a warm breeze flows through. Everyone is on high alert, but they’re not scared of the Galra, or monsters; they’re scared of each other. No one can find it in themselves to trust each other anymore, everyone seems to be hiding something and no one is willing to take the first step and ask.

“Okay, we’ve just got to get what we need and get out of here. Keith, remember you don’t have to come with us if you don’t want,” Allura says. It’s nice, even if tensions are high, they’re still a family that cares for each other.

“No!” Keith answers too quickly. “I mean, no. It’s fine, I can handle it,” He says, nodding softly as he steps out of the castle.

“I see,” Shiro says this time. “Well, if you ever feel uncomfortable, I’ll punch you and red will come running,” Shiro jokes, trying to lighten the mood like the true dad™ he is.

“Right, like that time she blew a hole through the castle because you accidentally cut me during training.” Keith can still remember it vividly, one moment he was training with Shiro and the next there was a dull ache on his side. Shiro has sliced through the fabric and left a deep cut in his skin. It wasn’t a huge deal and it didn’t hurt too bad. Though apparently, that wasn’t enough for red because a few seconds later there was a roar and the lion burst into the training room.

“Hey, Keith? Can I talk to you?” Lance asks, gently pulling him away from the group.

“Oh yeah, sure.” They both walk to the other side of the castle, giving them significant privacy from prying ears. Though, they’ll never really have privacy with the Emp- no, he’s not thinking about that right now. “What’s up?” He says with a small smile. 

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay? With the whole… you know… snake?” He says, darting around the words. “Like. Will she be stronger here because you’re closer?” Lance slowly asks, the concern in his voice clear. She's always been able to control him from space, so distance probably has nothing to do with it. It's sweet that he's concerned though.

“I don’t know. But, It’s fine. I’ll have you, and the rest of the team to protect me if anything goes wrong,” He says, trying to look on the brighter side for once.

“I’m not going with the rest of the team,” Lance says coolly, reaching for his Bayard. “I’ve got some work to do.” Everything falls into place that second. Why Lance was so calm during the meeting when the damages were revealed, why the damages were caused by a gun. Of course, it was him, it’s so obvious.

“It was you... you shot the GPS… you wanted us to come back here!!” One final accusation sits on his tongue, the words falling out before he can stop them. “You’re going to try to kill the Empress!!” Why can’t Lance understand how bad of an idea this is? He’s supposed to be the calmer one of the two, he can’t just run into a cave, guns blazing, and expect everything to turn out okay.

“No shit, Sherlock. No one else has been working to fix this, someone had to do something!” Lance yells back, his voice instantly raising in pitch as they continue to yell. “I’m sick of just sitting around and doing nothing.”

“How do you think I feel?! I’m the one who’s under her control!!” Keith snaps back, Lance seriously isn’t playing the victim here, is he? Nope, he’s not going to let that happen.

“I’m the one that has to clean up all of your messes!! Do you know how many times I’ve taken the blame for shit you’ve done?!” Lance yells, roughly poking Keith’s chest.

“THAT ISN’T ME!! YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW THAT!!”

“Well, sometimes I’m sick of being the only one helping you. No one else is doing anything. I’m going to kill her, so you’ll finally be free, how can you be mad?! I’m doing you a favour!!” Lance isn’t really sick of helping Keith, the words are just slipping out at this point, his brain to mouth filter is almost completely gone as he rambles; looking for any excuse to justify his actions.

“No one else?! NO ONE ELSE?!” Keith can feel the rage bubbling up inside of him, he wants this to be a calm and rational conversation, but he can’t help himself from yelling, “WHAT DO YOU THINK I’VE BEEN DOING!?”

“WHO THE HELL KNOWS!!, YOU’VE BEEN SNEAKING OFF EVERY OTHER DAY!!. WHATEVER IT IS,  IT CLEARLY ISN’T ENOUGH, CONSIDERING YOU STILL CAN’T CONTROL YOURSELF--“At that moment it’s like the entire world comes crashing down around the two, the distant sounds of birds chirping fades into white noise as the defending silence fills the air.  “Keith…. Keith, I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it! I swear I was just caught up in the argument… A-And I didn’t sleep that well last night!!”

“You think It’s my fault… just like everyone else…” Keith’s voice is sharp and slow, it’s like every word was a weapon specially crafted to hurt Lance. Every single sentence cuts deep, leaving permeant scars as Lance stands there in shock. “I’ve been putting myself through **hell** to make sure that I don’t drag you into this, I resigned myself to a possible **lifetime** of this torture, just so you wouldn’t suffer… AND YOU THINK THAT I MEANT FOR THIS TO HAPPEN!!”

“Keith, you know I didn’t mean that,” Lance says slowly, holding his hands out like he’s trying to calm a spooked animal. The fact that Keith was preparing to deal with the empress forever just to protect him (and the rest of the team) doesn’t go unnoticed. The words take form in another arrow to his heart, the pain rippling across his body in waves.

“So, what did you mean?” Keith seethes, stepping forward as he shoves Lance back, his pain and betray coming through in the form of anger. “You blame me for Allura don’t you, you blame me for us not being able to form Voltron too, don’t you? **Say it, Lance**.”

“I-” Lance opens his mouth to explain himself, he really doesn’t blame Keith – he never has, but he can’t find the words. He stands there with his mouth open as he stumbles through his sentences, nothing making sense as excuses jumble together into gibberish. He sighs deeply when he can’t seem to find the words, he really doesn’t blame Keith… he just doesn’t know what to think anymore. His silence says everything Keith needs to hear, the lack of defence clearly showing his opinions.

“That’s what I thought.” Keith is by no means crying, but there’s an unmistakable crack in his voice as he shoves his way past Lance, purposely knocking him with his shoulder. “Do something useful for once in your life, and go fuck yourself.” That was harsh, too harsh, but Keith can’t take the words back. He’s too pissed to care right now, he’ll regret it later, but for now, he needs to blow off steam.

Lance storms off in the opposite direction, not caring about Keith as his anger replaces his concern. It’s like they’re back at the garrison, his distaste for Keith bubbling back up. How could Keith say that to him? But, how could he say what he did to Keith? They’re really both to blame here, aren’t they? “Shiro? You need some help?” Lance calls, jogging up to the familiar puff of white hair. For a moment, Keith slips out of his mind, the red paladin becoming all but nonexistence for a glorious few seconds. However, guilt soon returns in strong waves.

Keith is standing outside of the cave that started it all, the hand marking that were carved into the wall have been chipped and fallen away, like an earthquake had shaken the cave soon after he left. Offerings of food and flowers lay outside of the cave walls, some of it beginning to rot. ‘Get well soon, Empress! We do not know why you aren’t responding to us any more, but we shall wait.’ What the hell?

“What kind of trick is this?” He questions out loud, knowing damn well that the empress can hear him. He steps into the darkness of the cave, a loud hiss ripping through the air in that very second. It wasn’t a quiet lisp like he heard all those months ago, it was an animalistic sound. He flips down his visor and peers into the darkness, the caves looks the same; the same rock formations; bones; hell, even the same bugs.

He can tell something is off, something just doesn’t sit right in his gut. There’s movement on the far wall, a large black figure coiled as far away as it can get from Keith, loud hisses ripping through the air with every step. Why is she suddenly scared? Hey, he’s not one to count his blessings, this is a good thing… surely.

He takes a single step forward and the loudest hiss yet echoes through the cave, Keith filching as it hits his ears. He looks up into the snake’s eyes, expecting to see the hypnotic seas of purple and yellow dancing across its irises, for the snake to recognize him and dash forward; probably to mock him. Instead, the eyes are… wrong.

There was always life behind the eyes before, something that screamed intelligence and cunning. They almost hand this knowing glint, a clear sheen of white across them. But now, they’re a dull yellow. No form of clear thought behind them, no emotion. The Empress mimicked more of an animal than an intelligent being with supernatural powers. A common snake rather than a cunning and ruthless mistress. The Empress still cowers in the corner, her dull eyes staring at him with nothing more than survival instinct and self-preservation.

Everything goes in a blur, one moment he’s standing near the entrance of the cave, and the next he’s holding his Bayard tightly in his hands, the blade of the sword thrust deeply into the snake’s tail. He wishes he could say that the Empress that took control (and somehow stabbed herself), but it was him, he never lost control. She made a run for the entrance, and he freaked out. The next thing he knows he’s slashing wildly, all his anger spilling out onto the squealing snake.

Blood splatters against the walls in thick bursts, the snake writhing around with each push and pull of the sword, each thrust and turn of its blade. He’s acting on instinct, adrenaline pumping through his blood at an alarming rate as his brain chants _**‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’**_. He yells and screams almost as loud as the snake, the months of agony and resentment spilling out in the one extreme wave of emotions.

“ **HOW DARE YOU!! HOW DARE YOU!!** ” He chants, repeatedly slicing. The snake has long gone limp, his knife still slashing into the quickly cooling flesh, the blood no longer spurting with each beat of its heart. “How… dare you…” He weakly says, his energy fading away into sadness as he thrusts the sword in one final time, straight through the head. His hands are slippery, his face wet with tears and blood as he collapsed on its body. He cries into the soft scales of the snake, not out of mourning or guilt but regrets. He’ll never know why she did this, will he? He’ll never know what her plan was.

Eventually, he stands in the darkness of the cave, his armour covered in a thick layer of blood as the snake lies lifeless at his feet, it’s forked tongue hanging out between it’s parted jaws, it’s fangs visible on the top of its jaw. Its eyes are rolled back and lifeless, a clear shade of yellow as it stares off at the wall, unmoving. The snake is well and truly dead, its blood seeping out into large puddles across the cave from its various stab wounds. There’s a long golden insignia on her forehead, some of the golden lines painted over with blood. It’s the Empress all right… she really is gone, isn’t she?

Keith waits to feel a rush fall over him, for freedom to finally be his. He waits for the moment when he can be himself again when he can talk to everyone without fear for his or their lives. He waits for the moment when the constant chatter in his head finally stops, when the only voice in his head, is his. He waits to be able to tell Lance he’s sorry for everything he’s put him through, to tell the rest of the team what’s really been happening. He waits.

But, the moment never comes. Nothing changes. There’s still an unmistakable weight on his shoulders, one that he now can’t remember being without.

“ _Oh, my sweet Keith. My precious boy._ ” An oh so familiar voice echoes through his head, the snake still lifeless in front of him, the very real red wounds littering it body strongly reminding him of what he just did.

“ _You’re an idiot._ ” His blood runs cold, his heart picks up as his hands shake. No, please no. This can’t be happening. “ _But, I’m so proud of you, your first kill… and I didn’t even need to help you.”_ How?! This can’t be happening, please… no.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said before, please comment! I love seeing everything you guys have to say, obviously don't feel pressured, but if you want to talk, I'd love to chat!!
> 
> Feel free to check out my [Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out!  
> No seriously, I post weekly (ish) request chapters over there!!


	13. What really happened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is a REALLY plot heavy chapter, so prepare yourself. I hope I explained myself well enough!! Sorry for the wait, but this was a chapter I needed to spend a lot of time mulling over.  
> And! Just in case you forgot the small "light orbs" from Keith's dream a few chapters back are called "Radias". It's a pretty important part of this chapter.

_‘I know you want to know why I'm like this Keith. What I am, who I used to be? I can tell you, I'll show you everything you could ever dream of.'_

"NO! Stop! I don't care, I don't want to know!" Keith yells, stumbling around blinding in the cave as he grips his head, hopping over the long-dead corpse of the snake that's still lying on the ground.

_‘Just listen. My life story is an amazing one… and it'd make me so sad if you didn't listen.'_ Keith feels his arm wrench upwards as it clasps around his own next, only just resting there. _‘You don't want to make me sad, do you?'_

"LANCE!!" Keith finds himself screaming, his hands clasping over his own mouth as he struggles against himself. He doesn't this! The Empress is dead, so why isn't she gone?! Why won't the voice stop!? "HELP!! PLEASE!!"

‘Oh Keith, I'll show you exactly why. Listen closely dear, and I'll answer everything' Her voice echoes through his mind, he grips his head and closes his eyes tightly, praying the voices away. He feels a zap through his entire body, something that causes him to gasp loudly as his eyes shoot open.

His entire body aches, zap after zap shooting through him, a never-ending source of stimulation on his already weak mind. For a split second his vision flashes a deep red, and everything goes blank. His body does numb, the pain fading away in an instant. It feels like he's underwater, his vision distorted, and his hearing muffled thickly. The outside world fades away and leaves him with just the voice in his head.

_‘I was once a good creature, you know. Respected by all. Me and the rest of my kind had an important job to do. See, we kept balance in the universe. After the Big Bang, there was nothing but light and heat, blinding red-hot light filled the entire universe for thousands of years. But, over time something shifted.'_

His vision flashes white as his ears ring, reds and yellows dancing across the white backdrop of his mind. There's a quiet muffled squeak behind him, and next to him. Suddenly, sound after sound echo through the otherwise silent area until there's a chorus of sound. It's like they're talking, quiet conversations growing into massive tidal of sound.

A long strip of yellow light drifts past him, the straight ribbon of light slowly curling at the edges, thousands of other ribbons doing the same. Each one floats past his eyes until there's nothing but a sea of colour, each strip slowly rolling until the universe is nothing but small balls of light. Floating up and down with small happy squeaks.

_‘We were created from the light, beings of infinite power with the sole job of bringing order to our newly formed universe. We didn't know why we were here, or who made us, but we knew what he had to do. We each felt something deep inside of us calling, a desire to dedicate our lives to honing a craft.'_

The orbs slowly congregate in bigger groups, many of the same colours grouping together in larger blobs. _‘We discovered we were stronger together, one nature Radia could grow a tree, but a hundred could create a forest. We fed off each other's energy and did amazing things.'_

He watches in awe as a massive huddle of green light explodes outwards, thousands of the nature Radias shooting off into the distance with the explosion. There, floats a small planet, only half the size of our moon. It isn't perfectly round, and it more of an oval if anything… but they just created it from thin air.

_‘Each Radia discovered its purpose, as they did their colours grew more vibrant and their powers only grew stronger. Before we knew it, we had created the universe you know today, full of life and joy. It was beautiful and our greatest achievement. We designed each planet to suit the species that we created for it. You Humans were particularly fussy at the start.'_ The voice in his head giggles lightly at the memory, everything is simple and easy right now. It's a warm place, somewhere without evil.

_‘And, there I am! A death Radia, one of the last of it's kind.'_ He looks over to see a small black orb floating around in the sky, only half the size of the others. It trails after two bigger orbs, one that's red and other that's yellow. It's clear that the other orbs are teaching the smaller one the ways of the universe and it's place in the vastness of space. _‘We didn't have a bad job, we made sure that the creatures that needed to pass, did so peacefully. With us, there was no suffering. If an animal was too sick to continue living and was in pain, we'd put it out of its misery. My people always cared for life, even when they were taking it.'_

_‘Of course… to take their life we would inhabit their body, only when they allowed us to do so. The creature would know when it was its time, and willingly give us permission to do our job. It was like that for millions of years, each generation of Radia stepping up to maintain the universe and only make it better.'_

Keith watches in wonder as planet after planet is formed around him, nature of every size and shape sprouting out from the ground, cracking the surface of planets as they erupt outwards. It's a perfect cycle, life is created and destroyed for generation after generation. No pain, no suffering.

_‘But, I wasn't happy with my job. No one else could see the suffering, but I could. The life was imperfect, flawed. Animals were too stupid to keep themselves alive, and that only put extra work on death Radias such as myself. Intelligent life started to learn to love, and eventually f all out of love; which only created an entirely new type of suffering.' _Keith now watches as a young girl cries at her mother's feet, desperately clawing at her dress as her mother kicks her away. Yelling about how she's a mistake. He watches countless hearts break, from significant others, to family, even to life just being a bitch in general. He watches as person after person slowly chips away, their heart breaking a little more with every tear. 

_‘Life is flawed, Keith. I decided that I had to do something. Something to end the suffering that the imperfect designs were creating, love was simply a programming error, something I thought that we should have wiped out in the next generation. But, the rest of my people didn't agree.'_

A small black orb floats low to the group, massive squeaks of rage from the surrounding balls of light around it. It's surrounded on all sides, by a massive wall of light on all sides that blocks in the smaller orb. _‘They called me disgusting, an abomination to our kind. They thought that the suffering should continue, that this love was an intentional design, that animals need to suffer to truly live. I learnt that day that they don't really understand anything about what suffering really is.'_

_‘I fled from my home and got as far away as I could. At the time I thought I could find a way to convince them that I was right, but now I know that they'll never listen.' The black orb hides in a small cave, hidden under a small crack in the cave wall as red protection Radias float by outside. ‘I was trying to hide from them, I knew that if they found me they'd lock me away, so I couldn't harm another creature. But, they were harming countless lifeforms by not listening. Then, an opportunity struck.' A small lizard scampers along the cave floor, only the size of Keith's finger. It crawls up the wall and stops right in front of the orb, tilting its head to the side as it watches it with non-blinking eyes._

_‘I knew that I could control creatures, but I had never tried it on an unwilling host. I was desperate and had nothing to lose, so, I tried it.'_ The Lizard screeches loudly as it falls off the wall, losing it's balanced as the black Radia disappears inside of it in a puff of smoke, shooting straight into its head. _‘I had never felt so powerful, I could feel my power coursing through its veins. It took everything I had, but I did it. I took direct control, if only for a short burst of time.'_ The lizard steps towards slowly, it's leg shaking as it takes a single step forward.

_‘In these forms, I could do whatever I wanted without risking getting caught. I could work towards ending the suffering of the universe without my old species ever knowing. They assumed I died years ago, but I never really did. With each host I took over, I felt myself growing stronger. Controlling them was growing easier with each host.'_

_T_ here's a flash of animal after animal. The orb jumps out of the Lizard and into a bird after than Keith can blink, the bird eventually being swapped out for a fish. _‘Each form was only temporary, I took control of the lifeforms I knew would benefit me in my goal. Eventually, I landed on the planet with that godforsaken snake. The original goal was to hang out for a while, gain the trust of the local species and then destroy them. There were flawed. Flaws get deleted from the program.'_

_‘Of course, I didn't take into account how… progressively flawed this species was. I didn't expect them to be in regular contact with other life forms. See, they spread the word of their Empress, and soon other lifeforms flooded to the planet to see and offer me gifts like some kind of god. They wrote books about me; all false of course. They made sacrifices and did whatever I asked of them.'_

_‘I knew that suddenly leaving would arouse too much suspicion with the attention I had already garnered from the surrounding solar systems, so. I came up with a plan. I would pretend to be a mythical being with mind-bending powers, a snake that could hypnotise people at will. All I needed was someone to spread those lies.'_

A tall Altean girl with long blue hair looks at the snake with a notepad in her hand as she quickly scribbles down notes, her tongue caught between her teeth as she furiously scribbles down details of the creature. "Fascinating! Absolutely fascinating! Wait until we write about this finding, an intelligent snake with free will!" The girl cries, gently stroking its scales. Her high piggy tails bounce as she runs around the creature, cooing about its different features. Even going as far as to call her fangs ‘adorable'.

"Madi? Leave the snake alone, we're writing about it as a dangerous creature. Not your newest pet. Just get your notes and get out, we've already had a report from three different planets of their soldiers going missing in their area." That's how the book Lance found was written… everything we thought we knew is wrong. It's all one elaborate lie! She was pulling the strings even back then, faking aspects of her real power to lead people off of her trail, even to the point of creating a new identity.

_‘Very good, Keith. I'm afraid the Empress never did really exist. I had you believe that she had control over you from down on the ground when really it was me the whole time. I've always been inside of you, the "Empress" so to speak, died when I entered your body.'_

Keith shoots up with a loud gasp, air flooding back into his lungs as he looks up at the white ceiling above him, the familiar hum of the castle machinery filling his ears. He must have passed out in the cave, he's lucky someone found him before something else did. He's been stripped of his paladin gear as he lies on a bed in the med bay, dressed the simple white medical clothes that Lance wore when he was in the cryo-pod. His scratches and cuts from his last battle have been treated, half of his body wrapped tightly in dull grey bandages.

His head is pounding with every heartbeat, his ears still ring loudly as he tries to gain his bearings, his mind spinning over the revelations. His entire world had just come crashing down around him, everything shattering into a thousand pieces. Everything he thought he knew, was based of one massive lie. This entire time she was pulling the strings, never once really losing her hold. He underestimated her, and look at what's happened.

_‘There you go, Keith. You wanted to know what I want from you, and now you do. I don't want Voltron or control over the universe. No. I want to wipe it clean and create a new one that matches my vision. One where life is simply a series of events that are carefully planned out, no free will or room for any more errors. And, you're going to help me get there.'_

For a second, Keith's mind flickers back to a few weeks prior when Lance had threatened the Empress to her (his) face. He can still feel the very real sensation of her terror, the escalation of her movements as she grew frantic in those few moments. Something really had scared her, and something's telling him that it wasn't an act. Maybe. Just maybe, hope isn't completely lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we know what the 'Empress' (if you can even call her that) wants with Keith now! WOW!  
>  **If you didn't understand anything in this chapter, please shoot me a message on my tumblr, or leave a comment! I'll be happy to answer anything!!**  
>  Here's my [Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) by the way, so feel free to chat if you're confused about anything, or just want to chat. I'm always open to talking!  
> Bye! <3


	14. When A Secret Slips

To say Keith is pissed right now would be an understatement. To say he’s scared would be naive. To say he’s ready to stab a bitch, well, that’s right on target. He doesn’t really know what to think, is he mad? Yes. Is he confused? Hell yes. But, he still can’t wrap his mind around what’s happening.

He had built this entire world around what he viewed the Empresses to be, over weeks and week he meticulously gathered clues to paint this perfect image in his brain. And, then in one fatal swoop, she’s destroyed it all. He doesn’t know what’s real anymore, is this another trick? How does he know she’s not lying about this too? Nothing makes sense, the puzzle pieces don’t fit together anymore.

He’s got a thousand pieces of information, but none of them fit together cleanly. Everything is overlapping and contradicting, _it just doesn’t make sense._

On top of his new reason for 3 am mental breakdowns, his entire body aches. His shoulder his burning beyond belief, pain radiating from his muscles and all the way down to his bones. His hip is jutting out awkwardly with the skin in the surrounding area a bright red, a yellow and brown bruise flaring up in the centre of the mark. He knows there’s got to be more damage all across his body, but for now, he doesn’t want to find the visible cuts and bruises. The pain speaks for itself.

He carefully limps out of the med bay, his left leg only barely supporting his weight as his right one trails loosely behind. Keith keeps leaning on the walls for support, his arms doing most of the work as he pushes against the wall. He didn’t think the fight fucked him up this bad, the adrenaline must have masked the pain. He was probably too busy stabbing everything that moved to bother thinking about when something hit in retaliation. That damn snake still got the last laugh.

If Keith wasn’t still stuck on some alien spaceship, he may have wished for the ground to open him up and swallow him whole. The cold metal walls leave much to be desired, the artificial sunlight doing nothing to warm him. Sometimes this place is comforting and full of life, but when it’s cold; it’s really cold.

It’s nothing like what he was used to, no harsh sunlight belting down at all times, or sand seemingly sneaking into every nook and cranny of his belongings. No distant howling of wolves, or leaves wilting in the arid heat. It’s nothing like home. They only reminder that his home still exists is the sun-kissed skin that spans his back, the sea of freckles that cover his shoulders. Even so, they’re starting to fade. He hated that shack, but now he longs for it. For the safety, it provided, the comfort that the cracked walls held.

He has a job to do, he’s well aware of it. But, that doesn’t make this makeshift prison any easier to deal with. He’s not a literal prisoner, he has free will and if he really wants he could take an escape pod and leave at any time; but that’s not really an option. If he were to leave, the fate of the entire universe would hang in the balanced, there’s a mere illusion of free will. He doesn’t have a choice when it comes to this war; none of the paladins do.

It’s not the Princesses fault, she doesn’t want this war any more than he does. God, he hates this. He’s a teenager, he shouldn’t have to debate the logistics of space wars and mind controlling light-orb-things. He should be experimenting in college, drinking till dawn and trying to hide his hangover at work; not trying to hold his sanity together as it hangs loosely by a mere few strings.

“Hunk, you saw it too! Can you seriously stand there as saying that he’s been completely honest with us?” There’s a feminine voice that echoes through the hall, voice after voice interlacing as the team argues.

“I know that, Pidge! I know he’s been lying, but he probably has a good reason. We all trust him, and I know you do too.”

There’s a loud slap of skin against metal and the voices grind to a halt as the sound echoes. “Paladins calm down right now!! We are all dealing with countless different emotions right now, but we must remain calm. This is a delicate situation and we must approach it with clear minds,” Allura orders, her voice strong and clear. “You haven’t been acting like a team for weeks now, you all need to grow up and put your emotions aside!”

Keith presses his hand against the scanner, the doors quietly sliding open in response. The entire team is standing around in the common area, the five paladins spread out in a semi-circle as Allura stands up the front, openly scolding them. Her back is facing the door with her arms crossed tightly, she looks taller than usual, her Altean shapeshifting powers giving her an edge over the rest of the team. She always does that whenever she demands their attention. The team spots him the second he walks (limps) into the room, some more excited than others.

“Allu-“

“No! This is not up for discussion. Whatever is going on with Keith, it’s putting massive amounts of stress on him, and you’re not helping by whispering about him behind his back!!” There’s a pause before she starts again. “Pidge, Lance, you two have been especially bad. Lance, you need to stop snapping whenever pidge expresses concern surrounding Keith, and I know for a fact that the two of you fought before he stormed off.” Lance visibly deflates, his shoulders slumping forward as his entire face morphing into something resembling guilt. Keith can’t know for sure, but he’s almost positive Lance blames himself for what happened – if he even knows what happened – he was the one who made them go back to that planet, he was the one that pissed Keith off and caused him to storm away. It’s not his fault though, Keith knows that better than anyone. He’s done nothing but try to help from the start, his intentions have always been in the right place.

Allura spins to her left and looks directly at Pidge and immediately starts scolding her. “And you! You need to cut Keith some slack. Maybe he’s acting odd because he’s dealing with his own demons, not that he’s planning to hand us over to the Galra. Need I remind you how distant you were before we found your family? How you were going to abandon the team to find them?” Allura is being ruthless right now, she’s holding nothing back. It’s understandable why she’s mad, the team can’t form Voltron all because they can’t put aside a few petty arguments.

“Allura, turn around,” Shiro finally says, knowing pretty damn well that he’s the only one she won’t interrupt. The attention is quickly turned to Keith as he leans against the doorframe, Allura’s eyes widening when her eyes rake over his figure.

“O-Oh, Keith! You’re awake!” How long has he been sleeping? “We were just…” Allura trails off as she looks around awkwardly.

“Don’t bother, I heard everything.” He heard enough at least. “I’m sure it’s not surprising that I haven’t been entirely honest… It’s hard to explain, but I physically can’t talk about it. For my safety, but more importantly yo-“ He cuts himself off with a loud scream, his head suddenly pounding. It’s a clear warning, only a taste of what could happen.

He’s done playing this passively, he’s done letting her run wild in _his_ body. He’s been helplessly following after her, doing whatever she wishes; sure, he’s always fought it, but he’s done her bidding in the end. He’s kept quiet, betrayed the team, hid everything – all for her benefit? Well, fuck that. What about him? 

“No! I’m not listening to you!” He screams, stumbling back as he grips his head, the pain on the swelling up like waves across the ocean, eventually breaking directly over him. He’s not going to beg for the pain to stop or give in so the burning goes away. It helps for a moment, but it only comes back tenfold. “I’m doing things my way, you ca-” another blood-curdling scream. “You can’t stop me!” He’s got to do this, play an active part in his own story, refuse to let whatever the fuck the orb is to dictate every part of his very existence. What he says, what he does, what he thinks. _That for him to decide, not her._

“Keith! Stop fighting it, _please_ ,” Lance calls, watching helplessly as Keith grips his head, screaming as he stumbles back, refusing to give in as the pain build up time and time again. Wave after wave crashing down around him. It’s searing, each jolt that shoots through him carves itself into his body, digging into the deepest parts of his core. He’s on fire and freezing all at the same time, he’s floating and falling in the same moment. It’s a sensory overload, his brain having no idea what to do with the information as his figurative buttons are pushed time and time again.

He can feel her trying to take back control, the familiar drowsiness crashing over him interlaced with a wave of pain, the will to fight almost dying down inside of him; but, not quite. He knows he can’t stop her, but he can hold her off. If he can just hold her off for long enough, maybe he can explain something – anything.

His mouth is flooded with a metallic taste, a thick layer of blood coating his throat as he gasps for air, every once of his body screaming for him to give up; but he can’t. Not again. His hands shake, his body convulsing uncontrollably under the immense pressure. “SHE NEVER LEFT!!” He manages to scream, the pain doubling in response, it’s a clear order. _‘Shut up, stop talking.’_

“Keith, Keith, listen to me. She’s dead, you killed her! You’re safe!” Lance says, trying his hardest to reason with and calm down the hysterical boy,

“No! NO, I DIDN’T!!” Another jolt of pain, something that’s only encouraging at this point. If she doesn’t want him to talk, he’s saying the right thing. Lance caught on to what was happening the second that Keith started screaming, all while the rest of the team stands there in shocked horror. “IT WASN’T HER, IT WAS NEVER HER!!” Keith wanted to remain calm and rational, but the constant pain that shoots through every part of his body won’t let him, yelling (ironically) is the only way he can drown out his own cries.

The room falls silent, the pain finally subsiding as his scream echoes across the room one final time, his words sinking into his teammates. “Keith… what happened down there?” Lance finally asks, snapping out of his shock first as he steps forward towards Keith. He can feel the empress (can he even call her that anymore?) retreating to a smaller corner of his mind, knowing deep down that – at least for now – she can’t stop him.

“I-I don’t know. I was just so mad after fighting without-” The guilt on Lance’s face is unmistakable. “- And, I just stumbled into her cave. I-I broke down, I was scared, confused and angry above all else, I wanted it all to stop. So, I just stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, I couldn’t stop; I didn’t want to stop. A-And then.” He pauses and breaths deeply, trying to stop the very real possibility of another breakdown. “She talked to me, even though the snake was lying dead in the cave. I-it was all some kind of fucked up joke, the Empress never existed. It was to throw off suspicion.”

Keith can practically hear Lance’s world shattering around him, shards of glass cracking and splintering against the metal of the castle as his entire perception of the world splinters. “T-This is all my fault, I forced us to go back there. If you did go, you wouldn’t have known and none of this would have happened,” Lance whispers to himself, his worried going completely unheard by the team. This would have been the outcome regardless of if they went back or not, the Empress would have been a mere illusion regardless of what Lance chose to do. 

That’s the moment that the rest of the team finally catches on. Keith’s peculiar behaviour, his mood swings, disappearances – all of it. It clicks into place. The Empress never truly left, not for Keith, at least.

“S-She’s actually inside of me, Lance!! It was never some stupid mental connection, she’s in my brain, that’s how she controls me. She messes with my body from the inside, she sends false signals to my brain and forces me to do something, or feel something.” It feels amazing to finally tell the team everything he’s been holding back, but it’s terrifying all at the same time. His hands go clammy as he waits for their reaction, the presence of the Empress – he’s probably just going to stick with that name – still hovering over his shoulder.

“Keith, I-“ Pidge says, words refusing to come as she looks at him with glazed eyes, her glasses fogging as tears slowly well up in the corners of her eyes. “I-I,” She says again, her voice cracking and hitching as she stumbles for the right thing to say. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You were just trying to help us, and I’ve been nothing but an asshole this entire time,” She’s rambling, babbling as she stares at him.

“KEITH!!” There’s a loud yell as he’s picked up off of the ground, his entire weight resting on someone’s shoulder as two strong arms wrap around him, squeezing him tighter than his already burning body appreciates. “I’M NEVER PUTTING YOU DOWN AGAIN!! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD US, WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US!!” It’s Hunk, and he’s a mess. He’s ugly cry, openly wailing as snot runs from his nose, his cheeks glistening in the artificial light of the castle.

Keith doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t need to. Everyone can put two and two together for themselves, his reasoning for the secrets goes unsaid. One by one, the entire team slowly kneels around Hunk (who’s still crushing Keith) and wraps their arms around each other, an emotional group huddle on the castle floor. Even the mice join in, jumping up on Coran’s shoulder.

“Well fix it, for real this time. No half-assed cryo-pods. We’re sorry for not noticing sooner, but, we’ll find a way. I don’t care if she hears, or if she’s pissed that we know. We’re a team, okay?” Shiro says, the cool metal of his arm pressing up against the back of Keith’s neck. Keith nods and sniffles, burring his neck into the crook of someone’s neck – he can’t really tell at this point.

The feeling of the empress over his shoulder is completely muffled by the sensation of the team – no, his family – hugging him as close as they can, muttering apologies and promises. A sense of relief washes over him for once, not one of dread or terror, but happiness.  For once, life is actually looking up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the team finally knows, about time! Personally, I'm just really happy that Keith is finally the protagonist in his own story, in the way that he's finally being proactive in working towards a solution. That he's gained the strength to push forward even if it may feel impossible.   
> ANYWAY, here's [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out! I'm always ready to talk, so shoot me a message there if you want to talk. <3


	15. Boiling over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the wait on this. I’m currently on holiday so I’m writing from my phone wherever I can.  
> Editing takes ages so I’m sorry for any errors, I tried to catch as many as I could. Writing on my phone is pretty tough so please don’t judge this too hard!  
> Thanks <3

When you’re forced to take a step back and re-examine everything you once thought to be true, certain things can start to shift. At least, that’s what Keith is starting to find.

When you’re forced to sit and stare at a blank wall for god knows how long, your brain runs off it different places, and starts fitting together puzzle pieces that once didn’t seem to remotely fit.

The castle as never been a great place for peace and quiet, but it does the job. Keith often finds himself sitting in his bare room, resting his back against the wall as he meditates.

He’s always called meditation “hippy-dippy-bullshit” (Shiro can vouch for that), but it’s slowly integrating itself into his life. Not because he’s suddenly some 20-something white girl who has the dream of selling detox tea on her blog - God, no. It’s just a simple way to calm the voice in his head, even if it’s just for a moment.

The voice never really stops, but even a moment of silence is a welcomed one. Anyway, as he was saying, sometimes in the quiet you can find yourself re-examining life; or more specifically, relationships. Romantic or otherwise.

It honestly reminds him of his childhood, how he’d sit up at night wondering when he’d finally start linking girls - spoiler alert: it was never. There was a kid in his class, his name was Brad (or maybe it was Tom? Sam?). Well, names aside, he was pretty cute for ten-year-old standards. Nice kid, thick black hair, tanned from constantly playing soccer with his brother. Overall, nice guy.

Keith spent countless lessons staring longingly at his classmate as he tried to work out why his heart felt tight around the other boy. It didn’t make sense to him back then, why didn’t he feel the same for the girls? Why didn’t he like the idea of long flowing hair or ‘womanly’ curves?

He could appreciate that some of the girls were pretty, but the idea of holding hands - or god forbid hugging - one of them repulsed him. Let’s just say, it took him until he was about thirteen to work that particular conundrum out.

He eventually moved past his crush and almost completely forgot about the other boy, he moved school when he was out with a new foster family, and the cycle continued until he hit the garrison. And well, the cycle may have just started up all over again.

So, swap Brad (Sam? Tom?) with Lance, and you’ve got yourself Keith’s current situation. Look, Keith is weak, okay? He can only take so much. Lance is just… a lot. In the best way possible, of course. Nowadays, he’s selfless, kind, funny, quick on his feet, an excellent shot, not bad looking and a pretty amazing pilot. But, when Keith was first shipped off to space with the blue Paladin, he didn’t really care much for him.

Lance was loud, and frankly rude. He picked fights constantly and had a vendetta against Keith for reasons he still can’t fathom. He flirted with Allura constantly and often put glory above the mission. Then, everything changed.

The moment the Empress took control over Keith and everything in his work was flipped on its head, so was his view on Lance. He went from this person - an idea - that he knew jackshit about, to someone he now trusts with his life.

Lance was thoughtful when Keith needed it most, he was patient and always there to listen. He kept his secret without hesitation, even if that meant no one knew about how he was helping. He worked his ass off to help Keith find a solution and refused to give up even after they found nothing.

Lance was like a different person, the pressure of the situation turned him from a rough lump of coal into a diamond, something tougher than before all while retaining an unrivalled level of beauty. He backed Keith up when the others questioned him, even if he was in the dark just as much as they were; Lance trusted him blindly.

Like a pot of water boiling over, Keith didn’t know it was happening until the water had spilt over the edges. Feelings had blossomed forth before he even knew what to call them, let alone how to deal with them.

Now, he’s got one hell of a mess to clean up. Allura and Coran are working around the clock to find a solution for Keith; Pidge has gone through countless databases to find information on what the Empress really is; Hunk is stress cooking and helping Pidge whenever he can; Shiro is helping Keith with mental exercises. And Lance?

“I’m full, bye guys,” Lance declares, aggressively shoving his chair out with a deafening squeak of metal grinding against metal. Plates clatter on the table as he launches to his feet, goo spraying through the air as he makes a beeline for the door.

“Lance, you bar-” Hunk says, looking down at the half empty bowl of goo. Lance arrives at each meal, eats as much as humanly possible in a short period of time, and then bolts the second Keith arrives.

“I’m full, Hunk!” Lance snaps, turning around with a harsh glare. His gaze softens instantly as he says, “Sorry. I’m just not too hungry. I’ll see you in the morning.” And with that, he left. His face still littered with clumps of goo, his cheeks wadded slightly as he still chews through the ungodly amount of food he stuffed into his mouth.

Keith is standing by the door watching it all unfold, his mouth parted in shock as Lance storms past him. “Again? That’s the third day in a row…” Allura says with a small frown, gently scooping out goo for the mice.

“I don’t know what up with him, he hasn’t been like this since…” Hunk trails off as he places his bowl on the table, his eyes lazy staring at the wall as he thinks. “Well, ever really.”

“Never?”

“Yeah, he’s probably just stressed with what’s going on, sometimes he gets really homesick and mopes around for a few days,” Hunk says as Keith slowly walks up next to him, pulling out the chair next to where Lance once was. “I don’t think he’s homesick though.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Pidge sighs, leaning back in her chair as her fork clatters on the table in front of her. “Keith, can you try to talk to him after dinner? You’re probably the only one he’ll listen to.”

“Me? Well, sure I guess?” His response is phrased more of as a question than a statement.

“I agree with Pidge. It seems like Lance prefers you to us as of late. The bond that the Empress inadvertently created between the two of you may have a hand to play in that,” Allura says with a small smile, the mice scampering around the table as they squeak in agreement.

It all happens in a flash, Keith’s arm shoots up without his input, his fist closed tightly. His arm flies up and straight back down with force, his elbow to wrist colliding with the table with a loud smash. The plates bounce momentarily before clattering to a stop, only minimal amounts of goo spilt.

“Fuck,” Keith curses, his arm tingling from the sudden impact, his nerves alight for a few seconds as he slowly retains control. It’s been like this for a while, the Empress only appearing in short powerful bursts. He can’t tell if it’s because she’s getting weaker or stronger.

The fuzziness in his arm slowly fades away as the rest of the team stare at him, realisation clear in their gaze. “She’s a moody bitch. She wants to make herself known.” Keith pauses as an annoying voice echoes through his head “No, don’t even bother to say- you’re a bitch and we all- now that’s just immature.” Poking fun at and even interacting with the Empress takes away some of the edge about her. Calling her a ‘Moody Bitch’ makes her feel like less of a threat, it’s cathartic. At least, that’s what Keith’s found.

“It’s fine, Keith. Nothing was damaged! All is well!” Coran says with a wide smile, his arms tucked neatly behind him.

“Right,” is all Keith says as he nods softly, his eyes drifting down to his goo. He can’t help but feel bad for everything that’s been going on, it’s not his fault, but it hasn’t been easy for everyone.

”Keith.” He looks up at his name. “It’s fine, really. We’re all working to fix this, don’t needlessly stress yourself out about things that are out of your control,” Pidge says with a small smile. She’s trying her best to help with the situation, especially considering her previous outlook on the red Paladin.

”Right,” Keith says with more confidence this time. The mice aren’t squeaking loudly, the noise echoing around the entire room and they jump around on the table top. 

Two of the mice are squeaking significantly louder than others, spinning around as they try to grab Alluras attention. She looks down inquisitively at the mice as they finally stop scrambling around. One of the smaller mice cross their arms and slouch forward while the other spins their tail around like a whip, shooting finger guns at the princess.

He’ll never understand how they communicate or how Allura understands them perfectly, but she doesn’t anyway, nodding sharply as they squeak in her general direction. 

They squeak some more as the previously brooding mouse scampers to the side. The other mouse - a light turquoise shade - slouches down, rubbing its fur with a prolonged sigh like squeak. It squeaks a few more times as Alluras eyes widen, her jaw practically hitting the table.

“Oh! I see!” Allura stammers, her eyes wide, she spins to her left to face Keith. He wouldn’t say she’s flustered persay, more shocked a and concerned if anything anything. Not that she can’t believe what she’s hearing, but that she never expected it to come in that this form. “I do think it’s a good idea to talk to Lance… right now would be fantastic. BYE KEITH!” She unceremoniously shoves Keith through the door before he can even so much as ask to finish his goo. Fuckin weirdos.

Keith can’t deny it, Lance hasn’t been beyond weird lately... and he knows weird. He’s got a bloody light orb in his head for crists sake! 

Lance can’t (won’t?) stay in a room with Keith for longer than a minute, and even then he fidgets the entire time. He refuses to meet Keith’s eyes and his answers are short - if he’s even lucky enough tin get a response. It’s like Keith’s meeee presences is painful for him, that his gaze burns and cuts through Lance. 

He slowly walks through the hall for what feels like the thousandth time, his footsteps echoing loudly. Soon enough there’s another set, steps in a perfect rhythm - albeit it a longer between than Keith’s. Lance is at the end of the hall, his hands shoved messily into his pockets with his hoodie pulled over his head.

He’s scowling, the corners of his mouth tilted firmly down as he stares down at his shoes, watching each step he takes. He’s humming lowly under his breath, the notes cutting out every so often as his voice cracks.

“Lance?” Keith slowly calls his voice cutting through the empty air as Lance’s head snaps up. His eyes widen, his entire body stumbling to a stop as he stares. His motions are slow as he goes to step back, the balls of his feet dragging against the floor as he slowly moves back. “Lance! Wait!” Keith tries again, stepping forward as Lance steps back, their eyes trained together.

“I don’t need this right now, Keith,” Lance sighs, his voice flat and dull as he turns in the hall.

‘ _He’s finally sick of you. He sees how weak you are’_ The Empress cackles, Keith’s fingers twitching next to him in mockery. He’s too pissed right now to deal with her insults.

”Lance, just talk to me. You’ve been there for me, so let me try and do the same for you.” He’s both literally and figuratively reaching out, his hand hovering in the air between them. Lance’s back, however, remains facing him, his face shielded from Keith’s view. 

What is Lance thinking? What is he feeling? He can’t tell, no matter how hard he stares at the navy green jacket. 

“No, Keith. I don’t need you, I don’t need this.” Lance turns his head to the left, his gaze cold as ice as he glares. There’s nothing behind it, Keith can tell it down all for show. He’s all bark and no bite. 

Well, Keith can show him bite. The gaze only works to fuel an ever growing and call consuming fire in his stomach, the unrelenting need to argue becoming almost unbearable. 

“You don’t need this? You don’t need it?!” Keith can feel himself slowly cracking at the edges. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you better listen his very second!”

Just like that the atmosphere changes, the air becoming thick in an instant. Lance stops in his tracks, his entire body freezing as Keith voice echoes through the hall. 

“I didn’t _need_ the Empress fucking with me, but here we are. I dealt with her and a bloody space war! So whatever is going on I think you can man up enough to stop **moping** and talk to us!” He’s breathing harshly, puffing loudly through his nose. “All I’ve seen of you for the last week was when I had that breakdown and told the team about the Empress! And even then you left the second it stopped and refused to talk to me for days afterwards. That’s fucked, Lance!”

“Ke-“

“No! You brought me to that godforsaken planet again, and then left me for dead! We fought and you just left me to storm off into the woods, not caring because ‘Oh look, Allura is over there!’.” Keith has to pause for a second to try and keep any hold on his sanity “I don’t blame you for what happened on that planet, not in the slightest, but I need you to help me!! Or at least help yourself!”

“It’s not that simple…” Lance says slowly, his voice weak and smaller than usual. His hands are still in his pockets and he refuses to meet Keith’s eye. He’s acting like a brooding teenager that’s ‘too cool’ for all of this.

“How could it be any more simple! I just said I don’t blame you!!” Keith exclaims, exhaling loudly as he throws his arms up in annoyance.

“WELL, I DO!” Lance finally yells, his voice louder than Keith’s ever was. The entire castle must have heard that. Lance flinches and he screws his eyes shut tighter, his face almost one of pain as he talks. “I blame myself, Keith. This is all my fault…” He says quieter this time, his words still cutting Keith just as deep.

“What?” Keith almost can’t believe what he’s hearing like the Empress is playing some kind of trick on him.

“I left you to go in that cave alone all that time ago. I didn’t pick up on the warning signs. I didn’t think about how you would feel about going to the planet again. I didn’t hear you out when we argued. I didn’t follow after you when you stormed off, I saw you leave and I just decided to leave you because I was so damn petty. I didn’t do so much that I should have!” Lance chokes out, his voice wavering. “I wasn’t there for you, I let this happen…”

“I-I,” Keith sputters, the words refusing to come as he gapes.

“That’s why I’ve avoided you, I don’t deserve to be around you, not after everything I’ve done - or more so, haven’t done. I don’t want to make things worse.” Lance smiles weakly at him, it somehow only makes things sadder. “I just want to help you, but I only make things worse…I want you to know that I lov-” Lance trails off for a moment. “Never mind, it’s not important.”

“Lance, you could never- god I’m bad with this kind of stuff. Look, you only make me happier okay? If you weren’t there to help with the Empress, I probably would have ejected myself into space by now.” Silence envelops them as Keith does the only thing he can think of. The severity of his words hangs in the hall, the tension choking the two paladins as they stand there in silence. It’s not their usual comfortable silence, that’s for sure. 

He steps forward before Lance can run away again, gently wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug, his cheek resting on his shoulder. Lance stiffens up for a moment before he melts under Keith’s touch, his arms wrapping around the smaller boy in a similar fashion.

“Just, focus on what you _did_ do, okay?” Keith says slowly, basking in the warmth that Lance gives off.

He’s lanky but warm and inviting. Keith can feel Lance’s hip bones jutting out into his stomach - which hurts by the way - but he can’t find it in himself to care.

“You’re more important to me than I’d like to admit. None of this is your fault, it never was.” Keith says again. Lance'sarms tighten around him, his fingers digging harshly into his back. Lances breath stutters as Keith stays in place, their hug carrying on for far longer than what you could consider a ‘great work, bro’ kind of hug. But, screw it. They both really need this.

All of this fighting was because Lance blamed himself? That idiot. When Keith slowly pulls away, they don’t separate completely, their arms are still loosely wrapped around each other waists as they stare at each other.

Maybe Keith imagined it, but he swears that he saw Lance’s eyes flicker to his lips for a moment, his eyes doing the same in return. Every part of his body is screaming for him to close the gap once again, this time leaving no space between them.

But, he can’t. He pulls away as his heart flutters in his chest. “I’m sorry,” Lance apologies, his hands hovering just above Keith’s waist. Never in his life has he wanted someone to move an inch closer in his life.

“Don’t be. We’re both horrible at communicating. Once this is all sorted out, I promise we’ll get better,” Keith says. It’s an honest promise, the idea that once his body is finally his… he can explore whatever this relationship with the Blue paladin is.

Keith’s eyes trail over to the boy next to him, a small smile now on his lips rather than the previous scowl. His eyes are almost shining in the artificial light of the castle, specks of grey littered throughout his sapphire blue eyes. Hopefully, that day comes sooner rather than later.


	16. Med-bay meeting

“Forty-one… Forty-two… Forty-three…” Lance grunts loudly, his panting only growing harder and harder as time carries on. He’s sitting in the training deck, his ankles resting against the wall above him, his legs straightened above him as he lies on his back.

The room is completely empty par him, the rest of the team left hours ago to relax or do some work. Allura and Coran are off plotting their next mission, Pidge is neck deep in research, Hunk is stress cooking all while helping pidge where possible and Shiro… honestly, Lance hopes he’s finally getting a well-deserved nap. Keith is nowhere to be seen, but that’s nothing new. He’s usually in his room around this time of day, the last thing he wants to do is accidentally stumble in on whatever the hell the team is planning for the Empress. If he’s in the dark, so is she.

It’s a lose, lose situation, but it’s better than the alternative. That, of course, being that the Empress finds out that plan, intern thwarts in and then give into her superiority complex and destroys the entire universe. You know, little things like that.

He clenches his already burning abs and pulls himself up, wrapping his hands around his ankles for a moment before he lets go and falls back to the floor with a quiet thump. Wall sit-ups, man, they’re a bitch. He shutters in place as he pulls himself back up yet again, his body already worn-out enough from the past hour (or what feels like five) of working out.

There’s the distant sound of feet clacking against tiles, a slow trudging rhythm growing louder and louder as it echoes through the training room. Lance shakes his head and breaths out slowly, pulling himself back up with an over-exaggerated grunt. “One hundred and forty-five… One hundred and forty-six!”

“My god, you’re such a dork,” The person in question says with a soft smile as they lean against the doorframe. They cross their arms, stupid cropped jacket and all.  

“I… have… no idea… what you’re… talking about,” Lance says between overexaggerated grunts, making a show of wiping the sweat off his brow. What can he say? He’s nothing if not overly dramatic. He sits up with a quiet sigh, letting his feet fall off the floor and back down to the ground in a heap. “How are you doing, buddy?” Lance says, finally turning to meet Keith’s gaze, the boy in question smiling softly.

He silently pushes himself off the wall with his foot, his hands in his pockets as he walks towards Lance. “I mean, I’ve definitely been worse…” Keith says, trailing off with a loose shrug.

“But,” Lance says, drawing out the vowels to unnecessary lengths as the feeling that something else is bothering Keith bubbles up in his gut. “Something’s worrying you.” He crosses his legs and rests in his arms on his knees, gesturing for Keith to sit down next to him.

“Okay look, I know I should be happy that the Empress has taken a break from her usual mayhem,” Keith rushes sitting down next to Lance with a frantic expression, his eyes wide. “At first I just assumed that she was too scared to emerge around you guys because she doesn’t want to reveal any information that could lead to her downfall…” Keith groans loudly and throws his head back. “This is impossible to articulate.”

“Keith, just breath and tell me.”

“Right… so, the Empress has never really been one to just sit back and do nothing? Whenever she takes a ‘break’ she’s planning something. It’s like she has this energy bar, taking direct control uses up a heap of her energy, so she needs to rest afterwards. That’s what lets me take back control, she can take control of my body, but she can’t hold it for very long.”

Lance opts to stay silent, listening intently as Keith rambles, trying to articulate the tsunami of thoughts in his head. It’s hard to describe a feeling in his gut, especially hard to find logic within said feeling.

“So, whenever she’s silent for a long period of time, I can’t help but feel that she’s charging up for something big. Like, when I – well, she – almost shot Allura, she hadn’t taken control for a week prior.” The fact that it’s been almost two weeks since the last incident hangs heavily in the air, it’s left unspoken but not unheard.

“Look, I get you’re stressed out that something like that is going to happen again… but you can’t worry about it. I wish I could tell you that everything is going to be just fine, but I can’t. None of us know what’s going to happen, or even if we can fix this.”

 Keith visibly deflates, his shoulders slumping down as his fingers dig into his palms. Keith’s head drops down, his bangs hanging over his face in a curtain, hiding his expression from Lance.

“But, I can promise you that what happened with Allura isn’t going to happen again.” Keith’s head jerks up at that. “The only reason she got that far was that she had the element of surprise, it was only me looking out for any tell-tale signs, and I couldn’t be everywhere at once. We had a war to fight, so not all my attention couldn’t be on you, not always at least. Now the whole team is looking out for you, if anything even seems the slightest bit off, they’re going to be on high alert,” Lance explains in a calm and cool voice, his hands sitting gently on top of Keith’s. They’re not quite holding hands, but it’s damn close.

“But, what if-”

“No buts, no matter how much you worry, nothing is going to change. If she’s preparing for something, she’s going to keep preparing, regardless of how much you wish against it. All you can do is prepare for the worst-case scenario and keep us all updated,” Lance says as his hand tightens over Keith’s, this thumb gently brushing against the side of his hand. “I know that no one is telling you anything for obvious reasons, but, we’re all working out hardest to help you.”

As if on cue, the speakers around the castle crackle to life, white static filling the room for a few moments as both Keith and Lance freeze mid-conversation and listen.

“Attention paladins! Please convene in the tech lab, we must have an urgent meeting. Repeat: Please convene in the tech lab, this is a message for all paladins, even you, Keith!” Coran’s voice rings across the castle, a sense of urgency in his voice without him outright yelling that their lives are at stake.

Keith and Lance look at each other with wide eyes, usually, Coran makes the express point of telling Keith not to go. Lance shrugs, putting an end to their silent conversations as he pushes himself up off the ground, offering a hand to Keith.

As they walk out into the hall together, Keith can’t help but wonder what’s going on. Sure, let him sit in on the odd meeting, but never the important ones; and based on Coran’s alert, this is an important meeting. It’s exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

“You’re thinking too loud,” Lance says softly, his hands shoved in his pocket as they walk through the hall. “Whatever it is, they’ve got it under control. I’m positive that they wouldn’t call you in for no reason, especially if they’re technically inviting the Empress into the conversation too. Just chill out, okay?”

Man, he hates it when Lance is right. He also hates how often Lance is right nowadays.

“Right, yeah. I’m chill, I’m the human embodiment of chill.” What is he even saying at this point, god knows what comes out of his mouth when he’s rambling. “Jack frost would be cold around me, I’m that fucking chill.” He should really stop talking. Lance just laughs loudly and shakes his head, saying nothing as they walk down that hall.

Eventually, they turn into the med bay, the sliding doors wide open in a clear invitation. The rest of the team is already inside, gathered around in a clear semi-circle with two large gaps. The usually spotless area is a mess of wires and cables, the metal plating of the Cryo-pods ripped apart to access the internal hard drive, all of the machines linked up to the mainframe that Pidge and Hunk set up a few days back.

The room is covered in sticky notes of every colour, random scribbles plastered all across the walls with little to no organisation. The wires that link through to all of the Cryo-pods lay haphazardly across the room, tangled into massive vines of plastic.

Everyone surrounds Pidge, as she stands up and walks to her holographic display – which is currently blank. “Finally, dumb and dumber arrive.” No one says anything, but both boys instantly jump to the conclusion that the other one is ‘dumber’. “So, now that we’re all here, I can get started.” Hunk silently waves, gesturing to the gap next to him with a small smile.

Pidge spins around in an overly dramatic fashion and furiously types something out on her keyboard, masses of Altean text appearing on the board. She extends a long stick, the end of the staff tapering down to a gentle point, with a flourish of her hand she gestures across the articles.

“So, Hunk helped me comb through all of Keith’s log data from waaaayyy back when we shoved him in the cryo-pod, back when this whole shebang kicked off,” Pidge says with a knowing look. “For a while, nothing made sense. As Allura said way back then, the data reads like there are two people inside of his of the one body. That’s right and the Empress is quite literally in his body, but there was something that didn’t add up.”

Everyone nods dumbly, not quite following her rapid explanation. Her movements are rushes and exaggerate, her hands spayed out widely as she talks; she almost hits Coran multiple times. She uses her pointer-stick-staff-thing to gesture wildly at the charts that fill the display, talking with a certain fire in her eye.

“Okay look at this.” Pidge pulls up an X-ray, it’s clearly human, or at least really close to it. “Okay, so here’s the average human, all of this shadowy area is the brain.” She swipes with two fingers and zooms to the point of no longer being able to see the vast majority of the picture. “And this tiny little sliver of black is the space between the brain and the skull, that’s the only free space within the entire skull, and the only place the Empress could be.”

“Yeah look, I appreciate what you’re doing, but you’re really going to have to spell this out for me,” Lance says, the rest of the team nodding in agreement; other than Allura who looks horrified by the X-Ray.

Pidge smiles wickedly and points at Keith with her staff, the thin tip of the stick gently pushing into his shirt. Then, with a knowing glint in her eye, says, “There’s physically not enough space in Keith’s brain for the Empress to be there, based on all the research I could find and everything Keith’s told me, the size just doesn’t add up. She shouldn’t be able to fit there, which leads me to one conclusion—"

“It’s a light creature, it’s probably just really small and gives off a shit ton of light!” Lance says, jumping to conclusions as per always. Hey, at least he’s trying.

“Nope! If that was the case we’d literally see light shining out of Keith’s ears, eyes, mouth and nose. Not to mention he’d go blind.” And with that Pidge kills Lance in one fatal blow. “No, the conclusion that both Hunk and I came to is that she doesn’t have any mass. She quite literally doesn’t have a physical form. That’s how she can take over any creature and fit into any space. She’s incorporeal. The light is most likely a manifestation of its powers or some shit, I really don’t care. The point is, she doesn’t have a physical form.”

Keith thinks back to his dreams. There were always green orbs diving under the earth or flying through trees and bushes as flowers and vines grew across whatever their light touched.

However, there’s still one issue.

“Great,” Keith drawls sarcastically, “We know that I’m being controlled by what’s functionally a ghost, how does this help me in any way?” Keith says, crossing his arms in an annoyed fashion, his eyes trailing lazily over the charts and articles in front of him.

“Okay, how do you kill something that doesn’t have a body?” Honestly, the entire team would really appreciate it if Pidge would stop this never-ending line of questions. Especially because she already knows the answer.

“You can’t?” Lance says, turning to Shiro with a confused expression, dragging out the words like he fears the answer from Pidge. Shiro shrugs with an empty hum, his brain clearly elsewhere.

“Wrong again, Lance!” Pidge seems all too pleased with herself when she corrects Lance. “See, the entire problem is she’s mentally linked with Keith, and he’s obviously physically attached to himself. Keith’s ‘spirit’ is her connection to his body. If we want to shake her, Keith has to mentally fight her off. Not in a stupid metaphorical way, I mean literally bring the fight to her.”

One by one the entire team catches on, their eyes slowly widening as realisation washes over them.

“And the one place you can go without a physical form?” Pidge prompts, bouncing from one foot to the other, harshly slapping the stick down in her other hand, holding it with both.

“The astral plane,” Keith says slowly, him being the last person to catch onto the plan.

He can’t understand his own emotions right now. He’s over the moon that he’s got a chance of escaping the Empress, but this can’t be easy. What Pidge is implying is borderline insanity, take the fight to her? Actively initiate combat in the place where she draws her power from?

It’s a bad idea, the worst idea… but it’s also their only idea.

“Surprise! How Zarkon was able to track down Black is exactly how the Empress keeps tabs on Keith, or whatever thing she’s controlling at the time. If we can sever her connection with him from there—”

“We can sever her connection with him here…” Lance finally finishes, his voice breathless as he stares t Keith with an unreadable expression. He laughs loudly as he runs up to Keith, pulling him into a bone crushing hug and he lifts him off the ground. “We’ve finally got a plan!!” Lance yells again, smiling the widest that Keith’s ever seen him smile, at least in a long time. He’s over the moon, and honestly, that makes Keith crack a smile too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _*Watches as people talk about how the series is getting progressively lighter and less graphic.*_  
>  Honestly, I'm midway through writing the final battle... trust me, it's in no way whatsoever lighter or less graphic. I have a feeling that most people are going to fall into two camps: either you've been expecting this from the start or you're going to be completely shocked and horrified. (I'm pretty excited to find out which).
> 
> Here's [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out! I'm always ready to talk, so shoot me a message there if you want to talk.


	17. The Astral Plane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the word count for this is about 6k, so settle down and enjoy the ride.  
> And by enjoy the ride I mean scream as the ride plummets further and further towards the ground.  
> :)

The Lion’s Hangar is wide open, every one of the five lions spread out across the room. Each lion reflects the general mood of their paladin, none of them positive. Black sits calmly behind Shiro, her tail tucked neatly around her back paws, her head hanging lowly towards the ground; Green lies on her stomach, Pidge sitting on the top of her head; Yellow is on her back, metallic paws splayed out around her and tail tucked neatly between her legs; Blue lies across the floor, her paws resting on her head as she whines loudly.

And Red?

Red is curled around Keith, the lion creating a protective shield around her paladin. She’s emitting a constant dull whine, something only audibles to Keith via their mental-link. Her paws rest above the Paladin, creating a makeshift cavern for Keith to lie down in, arrows of light slipping in between the metal claws of the beast.

The rest of the lions surround red, each lion facing the red lion in some form or another. At first, the goal was for Keith to lie down somewhere in front of Red, but the lion wouldn’t have any of that. The second Keith walked into the Hangar she wrapped herself around him and refused to let him leave. She hasn’t stopped quietly whining either, a dull metallic rumble echoing around the hangar at all times.

“How are you doing, Keith?” Lance asks, his voice static and raspy through the helmet. Red has been doing her best to block out any external sounds so Keith can meditate, that, of course, means the coms aren’t working too great. Everyone sounds garbled like they’re underwater.

“I’ve been better,” He laughs bitterly, looking up at the claws above him and the single yellow eye that stares down at him through the gaps. Right now, he wants nothing more than to see someone from the team. To give them a final hug, or even just look into their eyes for a while. He wants that comfort, something only his team can provide. As much as he loves Red, she’s not the softest of creatures.

Red whines loudly again, almost in bitter agreement as her tail wraps closer around him, wrapping around him tightly. Keith gently runs his hand over the metal surface, tapping it gently. “Thanks, girl.”

The static fills the chasm under the Lion’s paws again. “Are you -- you know… like, ready?” Lance says slowly, his voice quivering in a way that he’s positive isn’t from the static of his helmet.

“As I’ll ever be.” This isn’t something he’ll ever be ready to do. No matter how long he lies in the shadow of his lion and wishes away his fate, what’s done is done. He’s got to go through with this, there isn’t another option.

“Keith?” A new voice joins the conversation, sounding just as wrecked as the last one.

“Yeah, Hunk?”

“Please come back, okay? D-Don’t lose.” There’s a loud sniffle and a muffled sob, the quiet sounds of someone fighting back tears as they cup their hands around their mouth and choke back sobs. “You can’t lose.”

“Ha,” Keith laughs, his throat suddenly feeling far tighter than before. “Me? Lose? Nah, not possible.”

“Even as you’re about to be ripped away from your body, you’re still a cocky-bastard,” Lance jokes quietly, his tone empty and dull, no bite behind the words. He sounds empty, almost like a poorly executed copy of  Lance. He’s the same person with the same horrible jokes, but there’s no heart behind it.

“Keith, I’ve already had to deal with losing two family members,” Pidge says this time, her voice arguably the calmest of them all. Regardless, her voice is a few octaves higher as she talks, her words coming out rushed. “Don’t you dare be the third. I- I can’t lose you too.” Her voice finally cracks at the end, like a dam breaking Keith can finally hear the pain behind her words flooding out in waves.

Pidge loudly clears her throat and exhales slowly.

“So, uh- do you know what you need to do?” Pidge says, her voice slightly strained.

“Yeah, just relax and kick ass. I’ve got this,” Keith says, faking confidence as he rests on his back, his arms resting on his stomach.

There are the quiet sounds of paper rustling as Pidge pulls out her diagrams, and says, “Right. So, basically your ‘spirit’ -- if you can even call it that -- will be leaving your body. When you’re in the Astral plane, your body will basically be frozen in time, you what you’ll find in the Astral plane, not what you’ll have to do there. I’m afraid you’ll have to work it out on your own.”

“What do I do to get back?”

“Uh…” Pidge fumbles for a moment, before saying, “Allura, this is your area of expertise.” That’s basically code for ‘I don’t know.’

“Right. Okay, Keith, I can’t say anything for certain. But once your ‘job’ is done, your spirit should naturally go back to your body. It’s more of a subconscious thing if you know you’ve done everything you can, then you’ll leave the Astral plane.” Keith nods slowly, something still grinding on his consciousness as he tries to relax, it’s this incessant thought in the back of his mind, an alarm that refused to turn off.

“Goodluck, Keith. We’re all right behind you, the lions too. We’re all proud, so insanely proud.” The coms go silent after Shiro talks, that was basically the team's goodbye. As much as everyone wants to talk forever, they’re only putting off the inevitable. He closes his eyes and exhales slowly, focusing on his breathing as he just lies there.

He breathes and breaths, trying his hardest to relax, or at least calm himself down, but the alarm in his mind only gets louder. It’s a deafening wailing, an idea that causes his stomach and heart to switch places whenever he thinks about it.

 With an exasperated groan, he opens his eyes again, fiddling with his helmet as he switches between the different frequencies, eventually landing on the channel aptly named ‘Blue’. He presses a few buttons and turns the channel to private, blocking out the rest of the Paladins.

Red purrs suggestively, almost giggling as she nudges him with her tail. Keith rolls his eyes but presses the microphone button regardless. “Hey, Lance?”

“Oh, hey! Can’t relax?” Lance sounds surprisingly chipper, his pain masked cleaning under his bubbly attitude.

“Well… yeah. I uh- I have to clear something up before I leave, I guess,” Keith says, fumbling for the right words. There isn’t really an easy way of saying this, each option is just as messy as the last -- if not more.

“What’s on your mind?” Lance prompts further.

“Look, if something goes wrong--” He barely even gets a sentence out when Lance interrupts him.

“No!” Lance snaps, his voice echoing in the empty chamber of the Lion before it eventually fades away. “You can’t think that way, nothing is going to happen. You’ll be fine.”

“Just, let me say this okay?” Lance goes silent, letting Keith say what he has to; not happily mind you. “If something goes wrong,” He says again, “And the Empress wins and takes direct control, or I can’t get back for whatever reason… I need you to kill me.”

With that, Keith places his cards on the table. There’s a beat of silence before Lance gasps under his breath.

“Keith, I can’t do-”

This time Keith interrupts. “Lance, please. I’m relying on you, the first thing she’ll do if she wins is try to kill you all. I need you to stop her before she does, you won’t be killing me, you’ll be stopping her. I won’t feel it, I promise.” He honestly can’t promise that he won’t feel anything, he doesn’t know anything about what’s going to happen, and that’s probably the scariest part. The fear of the unknown. He’s more saying it for Lance’s benefit.

The silence is deafening, seconds bleed into minutes, which slowly bleed into hours as Keith lies there, awaiting a response. In actuality, only a few seconds have passed, but it feels like hours, days even. He just sits there, shrouded in darkness and silence alike. Is Lance angry that Keith is asking this of him, is he asking too much?

Well, yeah. That he knows for sure, asking for a teammate to promise to shoot you isn’t really a casual favour. Gone are the days of stealing a pen from Lance’s desk at the Garrison. “Okay,” Lance says, pulling Keith from his thoughts.

“Wait, what?” Keith has to do a double take, did Lance actually just agree to this? He’s okay (Well, that’s not really the right word) with the idea of shooting Keith if the situation calls for it. Honestly, he shouldn’t be happy about his closest friend agreeing to shoot him, but nothing has really been how it should be lately.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Lance says, his voice painfully numb. “Don’t expect me to be happy about this.”

“Thank you, Lance, honestly.” For a moment, he feels genuine relief.

“Don’t thank me, this isn’t something I want you to associate with me.” Keith only just misses the quiet mumble of ‘With us’ under Lance's breath. “Keith?” Lance says one final time.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t lose.” It’s a simple sentiment, one he’s already heard from everyone else, but it’s something that

Keith smiles to himself, slowly closing his eyes for the second time, his breath slowly evening out. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” That’s that last thing he says before there’s an overwhelming sense of calm washing over him. With each wave, the feeling grows stronger and stronger until it completely consumes him. His thoughts slowly fade into obscurity, his thinking growing more and more abstract before it stops altogether, for a moment he simply exists.

There’s a pressure on his chest, it’s not painful, but it isn’t comfortable either. It’s this invisible weight that falls through his body, sinking like a stone through water. It starts at his ribcage and works its way up, the weight resting on his shoulders, neck and eventually head.

He’s only just aware enough to take in the sounds around him, as actively thinking and processing anything quickly starts to take more and more energy. He’s drowsy and wide awake all at the same time. Physically and mentally he’s exhausted, but there’s this growing warmth that spreads through his entire being, starting at his head where the weight once rested. It’s this burning energy, the feelings of lightning in his veins.

It spreads and spread until his whole body is consumed by it, the sensation completely muffling everything else. He can’t feel Red’s tail wrapped around him or the solid metal floor under him. There’s this moment of nothingness. His eyes are closed and all feeling is gone, where all of his sense cease to exist. Suddenly there’s an earth-shattering roar, followed by four others in unison.

Each roar melds together into one harmonious howl, it sends rippling shockwaves through his whole body. He shoots up with a loud gasp, scrambling to his feet as his heart races and blood runs cold. “What happ-” He starts to yell, all words dying in his throat as his eyes widen as he looks around,  “-happened?” He finishes in disbelief.

Stars. That’s all his eyes can see, stars shining above him, next to him. Wherever he looks, the universe surrounds him on all sides. The sky glows a bright purple, the stars above him gleaming a light lilac. Lavender ‘clouds’ hover in the sky, millions upon millions of stars creating the illusion of a cloud covered sky as light shines down on interstellar gas and dust. The cosmic clouds are unmoving, but streak across the sky in long glowing spirals.

The space is completely empty for as far as he can see, nothing but him and the stars. “Hello?” He calls, shocked when his voice doesn’t echo, the sound clear and without the distortion that he expected. “Guys?” He calls again, his voice breaking the all-consuming silence. However, the silence seeps back in a moment later, his calls going unanswered.

He steps forward, the ground rippling around his steps. There’s what feels like a thin layer of water covering the ground, the water rippling with each step he takes. The water never splashes, nor does it reflect anything. The ground is simply a block of black that reflects none of the stars above and around him. The hard her jumps, the more the ground ripples, yet the ‘water’ never once splashes; it never even makes a sound.

Nothing here makes sense. Normal physics don’t apply, even by the standards of space. It defies all logical reasoning. “Keith! Oh, how good it is to see you! I wish I could say that I wasn’t expecting you, but we both know that I was.” A different voice cuts the silence, one that Keith knows far too well. It’s the voice that quite literally haunts his dreams, the one person (if you can even call her that) that can send chills through to Keith’s very core.

“Where are you!?” He hisses, taking a battle stance as he looks around him, the voice everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He clenches his fits and holds them out in front of him defensively, his head snapping towards wherever he hears the voice.

“Now, now! That’s not how you should act as a guest! I thought I taught you better manners than that.” The voice surrounds him on all sides. Her tone, like always, is completely unreadable, leaving Keith even further in the dark. Luckily, Keith has known her long enough to know that she’s not going into this fight without a plan. She’s never just gone into a fight for the best, she’s always had a detailed plan, and countless backup plans if that was to go pear-shaped.

He’s positive she’s done the same this time. The tension in the air is thick and heavy, they both know exactly why they’re here. They’re both beating around the bush, prolonging the inevitable in this perpetual game of cat and mouse.

“Keith, I’m not going to lie to you.” Wow, that’s a first. “I know exactly why you’ve come here and I know exactly what your friends what you to do.” Keith doesn’t respond, simply raising his fists higher as he tries to hone in on the sounds all around him. Each laugh sends him spiralling, his head snapping in a different direction each time, her voice always moving.

In front of Keith, a long black cloud materialises out of thin air, the cloud swirls around in a clockwise motion before a long blue arm shoots out of the smog, another arm following close afterwards. With an exaggerated arm movement, the smog clears, the fog flying out in all directions as it dissipates back into the air. There stands a young girl, no older than fifteen. Her skin is a dark turquoise, long spike-like horns extruding from the top of her head and around the sides of her face, most commonly around her ears. Her skin is speckled with red and blue scale-like patches of skin, trickling down her whole body.

“Alexander, truly she was a lovely girl… a little too trusting for her own good, but a lovely host nonetheless,” The girl speaks, showing off the neon green interior of her mouth, her forked tongue flicking out as she talks. “Of course, this form is merely an illusion, the poor girl died years ago.” She rolls her eyes when Keith gasps quietly under his breath. “Oh hush, she died of natural causes in her old age.”

“What do you want? Why are you telling me this?” He hisses, fighting back to urge to just punch her and kick this damn fight off. He almost feels like he’s stuck in a cutscene and he just wants to fight the boss already. Honestly, she needs to stop monologuing.

“Keith, I’m telling you because I’ve have controlled hundreds of different creatures throughout my lifetime, yet none have ever come close to comparing to you!” She exclaims, throwing one arm behind her as she clenches the other, smiling wildly as she yells excitedly. “You’ve held out far longer than any other have, even more so you have this fire that I’ve never seen before. Do you realise what we could do together? Keith, we could make the universe kneel at our feet!” The girl says, her smile turning wicked as she stares up at the stars above her, her green eyes burning with vengeance.

“What?” Keith stumbles for a second, caught completely and utterly off guard. He was expecting her to go on about how strong she is here, how he made a mistake coming here. He certainly didn’t expect this.

“Keith, we want the same thing, we may be going about it in different ways, but we both want peace for the universe. We both want the suffering in the universe to stop, we want to create a better life for everyone!”

“That where you’re wrong, you slippery bitch.” Okay, so not his best insult, but he doesn’t really have the time to pause and think. “You don’t want peace, you want conformity and obedience! You want each person to be a cookie-cutout, for each person to be a blank canvas without feelings or independent thought,” He snaps, taking a step away from the girl in front of him.

“We don’t have to fight, you don’t have to listen to what everyone has told you. Join me, stop fighting and I’ll show you what we can do together,” She says, holding her out in front of her, blueish claws retracting into her fingers as her hand hovers in the space between them.

For a moment Keith’s hand reaches out in the space between them, his fingers curled towards his palm as he hesitates. He bites his lip and commits, extending his arm and grabs her hand, wrapping his fingers around her palms, the scales digging into his skin.

He was almost expecting his hand to pass through her body, you know, being incorporeal and all. ‘Well, I guess I’m incorporeal right now, too’ He idly thinks to himself as he stares down at their interlaced fingers. That’s a weird thought, a really weird thought. Right now, his body is lying still in the lion's hangar. He isn’t in his body… nothing is, really.

“You made the right choice, Keith, I’ll give you anything you’ve ever dreamed of,” She says, her hand lightly squeezing his. At those words his blood runs cold, his eyes widened as he thinks back to how this all started. All that time ago in the cave, back before she ruined his life (let's be honest, she 110% ruined his life). That’s what she said to him. She promised him the happiness, and this is what he got.

Why is he even doing this, he doesn’t want to serve by her side, he doesn’t want to betray the team. No, he’s shaking her hand for a reason, but, it’s not because she’s giving into her. While she’s internally celebrating her victory, Keith tugs harshly on her arm, pulling her towards him. While she’s off guard he roughly throws her across the astral plane by her arm, silently hoping he dislocated her shoulder.

She looks at Keith with a wicked smile, clicking her fingers in the seconds before she hits the ground. In another puff of smoke, she disappears, the smoke hitting the ground as it spreads out. “I really thought you were smarter than that. We could have been great!” She grits out the words harshly, putting emphasis on her words as she appears behind Keith and kicks him harshly in the back.

Keith falls to his knees at the blow to his back, The Empress apperates in front of him as she lands another hearty kick to his chest. She drags her foot up his body as she kicks his chest, kicking him under the chin as well, all in one fatal blow.

“You’re an idiot! AN IDIOT!” She screams hysterically, teleporting furiously as she lands blow after blow on Keith, a particularly far hit to his head causing his head to spin and ears to ring. “This is MY domain! You think I was powerful in our realm? _HA! YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ANYTHING YET!_ ”

Her pupils are shrunk in her eyes, her irises twitching ever so slightly as she laughs, landing yet another blow on Keith. She’s screaming without restraint, her nails extended to knife sharpened points as she slashes deeply into Keith’s ‘body’. She cuts deep enough to draw blood with each punch, however, blood is never drawn. He never bleeds, he never bruises or breaks. He’s stuck in this perpetual state of agony without relief.

There’s this growing sense of drowsiness with every hit, each hit he feels himself slip further and further away, his connection to his body fraying at the edges. Without ever taking damage, he’s quickly losing everything. “GAH!” He screams, a strong kick connecting with his stomach as he flies backwards like the Empress had before, this time actually hitting the ground. Pain splinters through his shoulder when he hits the ground, the burning never ceasing, even without his arm losing any of its strength.

The Empress teleport/apparates above him, straddling his waist as she digs her nails into his neck, pressing his head into the ground below “You know, if you agreed to come with me, I would have given you your body back eventually. We could have ruled together, me with my ideal host, and you with your own body.” She shakes her head pitifully as she presses down on his neck harder. “It’s a shame really, once I find another host, I’ll just have to throw your body away. It’s a horrible waste of such a fine specimen, but, you’ve left me no choice.”

“You- Ah! Bitch,” Keith hisses, refusing to drop his petty name calling even when the odds are very clearly stacked against him. What can he says, he’s Keith through and through. She steps on his wrist with a bent leg, holding one down with the heel of her shoe while her hand pins the other above his head, rendering him defenseless.

“Mmmm, you know something I forgot to tell you? I’m built for this realm; hell! My species made this damn Astral plane. But, you, well, you weren’t built for this place. I can survive here without a host indefinitely, you, however, can’t.” She adds emphasis to her words as pushes even harder, her nails piercing his skin. “The second you’re completely separated from your body, you’re going to fade into nothingness. You’ll die in here. There will be no life afterwards, you’ll simply… disappear. You’ll never see your friends again. I know it’ll be a real delight for me when I finally end the blue one, he’s been a real pest. Lance? Was that his name?” She mocks, feigning ignorance towards Lance.

Something clicks in Keith’s mind when she says those words. She knows nothing about human culture. She thinks that human expect to see their friends after death, that dying is some super abstract idea that most people aren’t aware of until it’s too late.

Keith struggles to the best of his ability, eventually managing to push her off of him. He scrambles to his feet, the sting of pain fading the second her claws retract from his skin. He heaves out a forced breath nonetheless. The Empress takes a defensive stance, preparing for Keith to run at, and eventually attack her again. 

Knowing she won't expect it, Keith drops to the balls of his feet, balancing on one foot while he extends the other out. He spins in a clockwise sweeping motion, his foot catching on the back of her ankle, sending her spiraling towards the ground below. This time, she doesn’t teleport, he simply hits the ground with a loud thud, the water rippling violently around her. Oh, how the tables have turned.

Look, he’s so very clearly unequipped for this battle in every sense of the words, but he’s not giving up that easily. No way. Not only his is life on the line, but so is the lives of his friends, the universe and everything in it. If he loses, and the team don’t succeed in stopping her when she takes his body… it’s game over. There’s quite literally the weight of the entire universe resting on his shoulders, and he’s slowly crumbling under the pressure.

The fight is messy, neither of them holding anything back. They scratch, claw, bite, punch and kick like wild animals. It's life or death, the both of them working on nothing but instinct alone. If he could bleed, Keith's sure the two of them would be covered in open wounds. He both look at fresh as when they started the fight, frustration and fatigue being the only noticeable difference.

Keith and the Empress both land simultaneous punches on one another, Keith’s fist connecting with her neck while she delivers a harsh uppercut. They both stumble for a moment, but immediately resume right where they left off, ducking and dodging each other's punches and kicks; all while trying to land punches of their own.

It’s a fight, unlike anything he’s ever been in or even seen. They’re both going all out, putting everything they’ve got into every blow. With every hit, there’s an initial explosion of pain, before it fizzles to a dull buzz that refuses to fade any further. However, no matter how bad the pain grows, neither of them grow any weaker. They’re both stuck in the perpetual state of strength, where each and every blow hurts, but nothing changes between the two; where no one bruises or bleeds.

Don’t get it twisted, they’re not stuck in their own personal circle of hell forever. No, this fight will end eventually. But, it’s not going to be in the way that Keith is used to, that’s for sure. Only one ‘person’ is walking out alive, after all, there’s only one body and there’s no way in hell they’re sharing. There’s also no way in hell that Keith isn’t going to be the one going back to his body.

They're equals, for each punch one throws, the other throws one back twice as hard. It's the constant give and take, neither of them having a clear upper hand in the fight. Keith's far better at dodging, but the Empress packs one hell of a punch. As much as he hates to admit it, she's right about them making one hell of a team. He won't change his mind though, he'll never, not in a million years, work with her. Even if it kills him.

He throws punch after punch, but no matter how many he lands, she only comes back and with the same level of prowess; each blow only seems to add to her never ending store of strength. And then, then everything changes. One move sends the entire fight spiraling in a completely different direction.

The Empress screams before throwing another punch, her fist clenched tightly as she slams into Keith’s chest with pinpoint accuracy. She grabs his shoulders as he doubles over momentarily, harshly driving her knees into his gut before kicking him one final time, sending Keith stumbling backwards. A sickening crunch echoes through the Plane for a moment, an excruciating bolt of pain shooting through his body, this time refusing to fizzle away like the previous hits have. It burns unlike any of her previous attacks, something that emulates a real injury. Pain that burns into his body and doesn’t disappear.

There’s a tickling sensation under all of it, a cold, thick liquid slowly running down from his nose and over his lips. The iron-rich taste of blood floods his faded senses, his head spinning momentarily as what's left of his consciousness scrambles desperately to connect the sensation with his memories.

The Empress smirks, her head cocked to the side as she stares down at Keith, her eyes flicking with amusement. “Finally,” She whispers, both annoyed and overjoyed at the same time. “It took long enough. I wasn’t lying when I said you’ve always held out longer than others.” Keith reaches up to his nose, gently pressing his fingers to the area between his lips and nose, wiping away the trail of liquid.

It smears against his skin as he frantically wipes it away. He pulls his hand away, inspecting his fingers as his heart momentarily stops in his chest. His fingers are red, blood red. A thick layer of blood coats his fingers, shining in the dim light above him, almost reflecting his horrified expression right back at him.

It’s not possible, or at least, he thought it wasn’t. They’ve been fighting for god knows how long, and they haven’t even landed a scratch on each other… and now he’s bleeding. “What the _fuck_ ,” He whispers, wiping at his nose as more blood slowly trickles down. His entire body explodes a few moments later, as if the pain from the entire battle finally registers in his pain.

“You’re losing your connection, don’t you see, Keith?” She walks forward slowly, the water rippling around her with each step. Keith is still gripping his gut, hunched over slightly as he wheezes out short breaths. His body is overcome with waves of agony, every single hit from the fight finally registering in his beaten body, this time with the pain growing tenfold. She grabs his chin, harshly pulling him towards her until they’re noses are almost touching, her breath cold and sharp against his face. “You’re dying. Your body is finally rejecting your spirit. You’re going to die here,” she says, shoving Keith back. “And you going to die alone.”

He can feel everything, cracked ribs, fractured bones, bruised and broken skin. Everything. It’s unbearable. He quite literally bites back screams, his teeth tearing through his lip as he lies on his back head pressed against the ground. It’s every injury he’s ever had all at once, the agony of every single hit the Empress landed during the fight coming back to haunt him.

It wasn’t supposed to end this way. It can’t end this way. He tries to get up, his arms screaming in pain as if they were really broken. His arms give out under him as he collapses to the floor, his body finally giving in to the exhaustion and pain that consumes him. He doesn’t want to give up, every part of who he is starts clawing to fight back, but his body refuses to.

It’s eating him alive, this feverish need to fight without the ability to. The Empress grabs him by the back of his head, clicking her tongue at his bloodied and bruised appearance. How did he spiral so quickly? Mere minutes ago he was perfectly fine, albeit a little tired. “I’m sorry for this, Keith, but, it’s the only way. I’m sure you understand that” She whispers, gently dragging of her claws across the line of his jaw in an almost comforting manner. “I’ll be sure to tell everyone you said Hi.”

With that she grips Keith’s hair tighter, her nails digging into his scalp as she simply holds his upper body in the air like a limp doll. There’s a rush of air against his face, but his brain is all too hazy to work things out, everything moves too fast. There’s a blur of the stars around him as the wind whips against his face, his eyes drifting closed for a moment.

Just as his eyes close there’s a searing pain across of his head, a painful throb exploding along his head as he feels the water lap at the corner of his eye. Everything is dull and muted, the pain fading into a blank emptiness. There’s the bare sensation of blood running down from his head, disappearing into the water around him. He’s on the ground, he can tell that much. But, even thinking is growing harder and harder, his mind growing fuzzier by the second.

It’s like he’s dreaming, everything is slightly off, his entire body feeling drowsier as each moment ticks by. His hair is splayed out under him like a halo, his usually ratty mullet simply floating in the water, soaked in his own blood. However, there’s a sensation above all others, the calming press of hands against his cheeks.

There’s warm, unlike the cold and calice hands of the empress, the fingers rounded into soft tips rather than sharp nails. They’re familiar, comforting. The hands are shaking, for reasons he can’t understand, reasons his brain can’t process. He simply basks in the feeling, his eyes barely open now. The hands shake harder, pressing into his cheeks. Even as Keith's vision fades, he can see that's there's nothing around him, simply an myriad of purple highlights and blurs. 

They're  _so_ familiar, but he can't tell why. Maybe he'll be able to tell after a nice nap... yeah. Sleeping sounds great right now.

Keith floats through an endless ocean as everything fades away in a calm sea around him, waves gently lapping at his body. He can feel himself slowly drifting off to sleep, his brain processing one final thought. _‘I can’t feel her anymore,’_ His brain messy spits out, the words clunky and barely fitting together cleanly. _‘D-Did I win? Am I free?’_

The fact is, no, he didn’t win.

But... that doesn’t mean he isn’t free.

For once his mind is his own, for one moment of pure bliss, there’s no quiet nagging of a voice that won’t leave him alone. Even if the circumstances aren’t ideal, his mind is at least, for one, at peace. Of course, all moments must come to an end, no matter how well deserved those moments are. Keith’s eyes finally drift shut, his breathing evening out until it stops altogether. He lies there still, his hair drifting gently in the water around him.

At first glance, you’d assume he was asleep. His face is calm, his mouth tilted into a soft smile, one that you’d miss if you weren’t looking close enough. Of course, the blood the drips from the head wound on the back of his head is a stark reminder of reality the befell Keith. His blood mixes into the water, everything around him turning a dull red as he lies here, deathly still.

The Empress stands above him with a satisfied smile, she leans down and smoothes out his hair, gently combing the mattered locks out of his eyes. “Sleep well, you put up a good fight,” She whispers, her clawed hand gently cupping his cheeks. “I’ll preserve your body, my dear. Once I’m done with my quest, it won’t be destroyed. Not after everything we’ve been through together, it’ll be my own little reminder of how hard you fought.”

She stands up with a quiet hum, her face still void of remorse. She walks away from Keith, hands tucked behind her back, her footsteps echoing quietly behind her. 

Keith's breath stutters, his chest still slowly rising and falling. Eye's still blissfully closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so please don't kill me!
> 
> I can promise that this story **doesn't** end here! (Though, it's probaby pretty close to the finish)  
>  ALSO! Please please leave a comment if you'd like to, this was my first time writing a death scene, and I'd REALLY like some feedback. Thanks <3.
> 
> Things will get better from here, I promise!


	18. Round Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's like 3am and I'm so tired, but I didn't want to leave you guys to suffer any longer.  
> I've give this a better edit tomorrow, to excuse the mistakes, but I'm just SO tired.  
> Exams are killing me man.  
> Hope you enjoy!

Lance’s pointer finger curls around the trigger, perched up on the top of his lion, watching through the scope of his gun. He’s watching and waiting, hoping and praying with every part of his very being that he doesn’t have to pull the trigger.

Red is still curled around Keith, shielding him from prying eyes. She’s long gone silent, her eyes blank without their usual yellow glow, the only sign of life being the occasional twitch of her tail. The hangars long gone silent, the team has long stopped trying to make idle conversation, the Red lion in the centre of the room taking up most, if not all, of their attention.

Blue keeps pushing comforting thoughts into Lance’s head, continuously reminding him that Red’s got this whole situation under control and they’re all watching over Keith through their mental connection. If anything goes wrong, they’ll know.

He huffs as his finger trembles on the trigger, clear his throat and nods, silently agreeing with Blue as his finger steadies over the trigger. This’ll be fine, they’ve always been fine… no matter what. Blur stops purring as all of the lions, shift, their heads snapping towards the Red lion in the centre of the room.

Red’s roar rips across the hangar, Blue’s eyes glowing a bright yellow. One by one the rest of the lion's eyes slowly light up, low growls echoing in sync as the lions kneel down in unison, jaws opening in an intimidating manner.

Red refuses to move, her growls growing louder and louder as her body remains wrapped around Keith. He can’t see anything, a massive wall of red metal obstructing his view. However, just under the chorus of lions is a feminine shriek echoing from inside of Red.

Suddenly the lion's eyes turn purple, their claws digging into the metal below them with an ear-shattering roar. They’re asserting dominance… against something. They bear their teeth threateningly, metallic rumbles echoing from their chests, their claws digging into the ground and their eyes shining a bright purple. The female shriek echoes into a weak laugh, ones that are familiar and alien all at the same time.

Lance holds his gun tighter, watching carefully through the scope as the lions stop responding to their paladins. Blue feels frantic, a sense of urgency washing over him through their mental link. Lance can’t help but panic alongside her, his heart rate spiking with each roar of the lions.

“What’s happening?!” Pidge yells, gripping onto Green tightly as she moves around in the hangar, her paladin still sitting atop her head.

“I don’t know, the lions aren’t responding!” Shiro yells, watching as Black freezes, her eyes still trained on Red and the paladin in the centre of it all. Somethings wrong...

\-----------

Keith lies there, unaware of his situation, listening to the almost silent rippling of the water around him. The surface he’s lying on is cold and hard, almost like cold marble. The position he’s lying in his very uncomfortable and unnatural, that much he can tell.

His head is bent awkwardly, his neck twisted to the side in an unnatural position. His arms are splayed out around him, his left arm bent awkwardly at the elbow. Everything aches, every part of his body screaming in its own way, all the way from his head to the tips of his toes.

Speaking of his head… his mind is foggy as his thoughts lag, the drowsy feeling of a long sleep still lingering in his veins. Why was he sleeping? ‘Is this blood?’ He slowly asks himself, the metallic taste flooding his senses as his brain finally starts to register his five senses.

Keith is scared, terrified even. He tries to remember how he ended up like this, what happened that got him to this point. Everything is a burr, he was fighting… winning? And then everything changed. Did he lose? He had to have lost, right? How else would he be in this position?

Information slowly floods back into his brain, he was fighting the Empress, of course, she’s responsible for this. He died, didn’t he? He swears that he can recall the cold embrace of death pulling him into the deep undertow, drowning him in wave after wave of fear and doubt.

Is he in heaven? Is this what it is?

No, that can’t be right. He can still feel, he can feel the dull throbbing of his head, his bent arm and twisted ankle. So, where is he? Light fades in and out in cloudy flashes, his head spinning as colour seeps back into his world. Purple, that’s all he can see. A vast, blurred sea of purple stars. It’s a perfect lilac sky, shining through the darkness around him. His head throbs with every beat of his heart, flashes of pain shooting through him every second or so.

As blinks, the light appears is longer, more frequent bursts, his vision clearing from the centre as it spirals out, the blurred edges of his vision clearing at a rapid pace. Keith scrunches his eyes up tighter before blinking again, the world finally clearing enough for him to actually see. His eyes flicker around the area around him, the same purple sky from before fills his vision, however, this time there’s a vast stretching blur of red and white.

Keith’s hearing slowly floods back in waves, quiet sounds mingling in with the next to constant ringing in his ears. He slowly sits up, groaning as he presses his hand against the back of his head, the ringing growing only growing louder. The words spins as he adjusts to sitting up, the throbbing in his head increasing tenfold as he shifts around.

He slowly pushes himself up to his feet, wobbling back and forth slightly as he stumbles. Why isn’t he dead? God, what even happened? It’s not that he’s got amnesia, he can remember everything leading up to and during the fight almost perfectly… it’s just that everything afterwards is a blur. Well, it probably doesn’t matter why he’s alive… as long as he is, then it’s not that important.

Just as he resigns himself to never knowing about his apparent resurrection (even though he’s not even sure if he died in the first place), a loud roar rips across the Astral plane, a distant thumping growing louder and louder with each passing second.

Keith spins around, groaning slightly as a bolt of pain shoots through his body, lighting up every nerve from his head to his toes. His head throbs painfully, the long dried wound still aching beyond belief. Regardless, he shakes off the thought and tries to pinpoint the distant roars, the sounds concentrating to singular coherent and continuous growl.

He looks around almost frantically, his eyes trailing over the sky above him, the stars remaining unobstructed. Just as the growl is actually behind him, it shifts to a quieter purr, the low rumble vibrating the water around him in short waves.

Keith laughs loudly when he feels a metallic snout press into the back of his legs, nuzzling into him. There’s the harsh grind of metal against metal as another nose pushes against his forearm and shoulder. Behind him Red and Blue are glaring at each other, tails twitching as they lean towards the ground, preparing to pounce at each other. They almost seem to be arguing about who gets to comfort Keith.

He can’t quite explain the feeling, he’s almost feeling the Lions’ emotions through his own body, each wild feeling surging through his body with a power he’s never felt before. It’s almost as if his regular emotions have been amplified by five, power surging through his body in the place of pain.

Red is the first to act, kneeling down in front of Keith with her head tilted to the ground. The ground around her glows a bright red, the explosion of colour cutting through the purple abyss of the Astral Plane. Keith’s veins are filled with a burning need for revenge and justice, the tingling burn of warmth spreading across his body.

Yellow is the next to act, kneeling next to red as a bright stream of yellow light bursts from the ground under her. Red mingles with yellow in the air around Keith, surrounding him in a tornado of colour. The dull throbbing in the back of his head slowly fades away, an overwhelming feeling of calm replacing the once crippling pain. The sensation of pain is all but gone, nothing but an empty buzz in its place.

Green kneels down next, adding to the ever speeding tornado of colour, green mingling with the others as the ground glows under her, interlacing with the Red and Yellow that surrounds it. Green’s aura is unlike the others, she doesn’t carry any emotion, no she carries power. As the green light swirls around him, a thousand different ideas start forming in Keith’s mind, millions of different plans clicking into place, taking into account every possible outcome.

Black is much the same as the other lions; a dark lilac light surrounding him as the spiral grows closer, the gaps closing as the Lions’ light blocks out the stars the cover the sky, everything fading away in the spiral of light. Black brings power, his body thudding with an all-consuming need to fight; win; concur. His fingers twitch with the power that flows through his veins, his body barely containing the energy that burns inside of him.

Blue is the last to kneel, her head tilted up towards Keith rather than towards the ground like the previous lions had. With a loud roar blue light erupts from around her, momentarily blinding him in a white hot flash. She carries pure emotion, love, anger, fear, joy; everything. She reminds Keith of what he’s fighting for, his team, the universe… Lance. She reminds him of what he’ll lose if he gives up.

There are flashes in his mind, the distant memories of Lance. As much as these few months have royally sucked (And they’ve sucked), good has definitely come out of it. The bad may greatly outweigh it, but the good is still there.

He grew closer to Lance. In his mind, Lance went from this loud, arrogant, flirty boy in his team to someone who genuinely cares for him. He’s been Keith’s rock, throughout all of this he’s been nothing but supportive -- even if he’s made some mistakes along the way. He cried, laughed, screamed and smiled; all alongside Lance. Lance never left because it was easy, he put himself in the line of fire to protect Keith, even if everything seemed impossible.

Blue stands up, looking down at Keith with glowing eyes. He has to get back, doesn’t he? Blue almost answer for him, purring louder as the rest of the lions slowly stand up from their kneeling position. He has to get back and see the team again, to hug them all (probably get cried on by Hunk), but most importantly, tell Lance. After everything that’s happened, he deserves to know.

Keith didn't really fall in love, it wasn’t a slow and gradual shift over a number of years. He was thrown headfirst into it with a matter of weeks. If he did indeed fall, you could easily say that he fell and simultaneously hit his head on a nearby rock, because love has not been easy for him. Then again, such is life.

The light from all of the lions melds around his form, a thin layer of white light shining out from around him. It sticks to his skin, burning itself into him. However, it’s not a painful burn, more like something that resembles a hot summers day, or the steam that wafts from a cup of coffee. He’s stronger, smarter, faster and he has something to fight for.

Maybe that’s what he was missing during that last fight, he resigned himself to how impossible everything was from the start. He never gave himself a chance to fight back. The lions let out one final roar before they fade into nothingness, the yellow glow of their eyes slowly fading away. The light they leave behind still persists in the purple abyss that surrounds Keith long after their absence.

Now look, don’t get Keith wrong. He’s beyond grateful that the Lions came to help/heal him, but… like, couldn’t they have done this from the start? Is it too much to ask for him to win on the first try and have a well-deserved nap? Yeah, it probably is.

It’s oddly pessimistic to have a general ‘well, what’s done is done’ approach on quite literally dying in the Astral Plane. Whatever, he’s officially got an ass-kicking with the Empress name on it. Keith sighs deeply and closes his eyes, focusing on the energy around him.

He can’t see her -- and he’s pretty sure she can’t see him at this point -- but she’s here somewhere. He focuses on the gentle push and pulls of the water below him, the tiniest changes in the vast area around him. Occasionally something shifts, something will click into place and move around, a massive source of energy frantically moving around the plane.

The source takes form in his mind, the black outline of something slowly coming to light in his eyes. His head follows each rushed movement of the energy source, his head trailing after the changes in the air around him. The creature isn’t completely there, the animal -- who he’s well aware is the Empress at this point -- phasing in and out of the Astral Plane, clearly preoccupied elsewhere.

The energy that floats around him fluctuates at a nearly constant rate, a certain frantic nature hidden behind her rushed movements. It’s odd, he always forgets that she’s not a perfect being, that she can make mistakes. And god knows he’s going to make sure she knows what a mistake messing with his life was.

He doesn’t have a plan per say, more a handful of loosely threaded ideas -- most of which revolve around giving her the ass whooping of a lifetime. He slowly exhaled and focuses on the energy around him, everything going in slow motion as the Empress darts out across from him. His arm snaps out, his hand wrapping around her form as he pulls harshly. There’s a strong resistance, an equally strong pull from the other side. It’s like she’s stuck on the other side, the resistance slowly slipping away as she becomes more and more unstuck. With a final tug, Keith falls backwards, throwing the Empress over his head with a surprised squeak.

“What the?!” She screams, spinning around as she looks around frantically, her eyes meeting Keith’s as her gaze transforms into a glare. “You…” She seethes, her glare as sharp as the quickly growing claws. She shifts from form to form, eventually settling on the one she used in their previous fight -- the young alien girl with blue skin.

With her claws fully extended she lunges for Keith, holding nothing back. Keith simply side steps, his body almost moving on its own as energy courses through him.

“Of course you’re still alive! Well, I won’t make that same mistake again,” She spits, not sounding all that surprised as she regains her footing and lunges again. Keith simply ducks, her hand just grazing against his hair as he drops to the ground, everything moving in slow motion.

She spins around, baring her teeth as she glares, her claws tapping against her hip in a rhythmic pattern, clearly mocking Keith as she does so. This is usually the moment where he’d give some rousing speech about love, honour, teamwork and how friendship is the most powerful force of all. How he’s back, and stronger than ever. However, he’s beyond the point of trying to keep up some kind of playful banter or snappy comebacks during this fight. The stakes are too high and he’s not going to get a second chance, he’s got to fight and fight damn hard.

Conversation is thrown out the window in favour of fighting, no holds barred between the two of them. She throws a punch, her fist clenched tightly as her nails dig into her own flesh. Keith holds his hand out in response, catching her hand in mid-air. Keith smirks viciously as her eyes trail up in shock, her mouth parted slightly as fear flickers behind her otherwise dead eyes. Oh, how the tables have turned.

He holds her hand tighter and he’s his free arm to land a sucker punch on her jaw, throwing her back as he uses his arms as leeway to drive his knee into her lower gut. He pants quietly, sprinting forward in the moments before the Empress can get back up, delivering a turning kick to her chest.

He’d normally brush these kinds of things off during the adrenaline of a fight, but here's the thing: He’s never once learnt how to do a turning kick. Before he can worry too much, there’s a distant roar, the cry of Green echoing through the Astral Plane for a few moments.

He laughs and shakes his head, of course, she’s responsible for this. He never really got a chance to learn to fight when he was back in the orphanage -- the closest he ever got was defending himself, which mostly revolves around dodging and hoping with everything he has that they don’t land a hit. However, it’s kind of exhilarating, the rush of executing a powerful attack and the following feeling of the other person stumbling away. He can see why people get addicted to it.

The fight is just as bloody as the last, but oh so different. This time he’s not the only one bleeding, no, each punch he lands does real damage. He hits sends the Empress reeling back in shock, for each hit she lands he throws one back twice as hard. No, this time he’s winning and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.

He’s got this burning desire for revenge, every part of his body screaming to  _ fight, fight, fight. _ With another well-placed punch, the Empress tumbles to the ground, bracing her arms out in front of her as she collapses weakly on the floor, wheezing as blood trails from her split lips. She screams when Keith kicks her roughly in the ribcage, savouring the sicking snap the follows.

His eyes blur, his vision going red as the need for revenge overcomes him, pumping harshly through his veins. It’s all consuming and burning, setting every vein on fire as he kicks and punches with a fury he’s never known. He’s yelling, sobbing, laughing and mumbling all at once, months of emotion pouring out of him in a tidal wave of anger as he lets it all out.

The lions amplify every emotion, Red constantly adding fuel to the ever-growing fire for revenge in his gut. Blue is in the background trying to calm him down, her presence working to calm him down as he slips further and further into hysteria. “STOP, PLEASE!! ST-AH!” He kicks, again and again, her screams becoming nothing more than white noise as his ears ring. He’s on autopilot, his entire body pulsing with each kick he lands.

_ She doesn’t deserve sympathy. _

_ She doesn’t deserve it. _

He chants to himself, his mind spinning as rage overcomes him. He wants to kill, he wants to feel her heart stop under his fingers. He wants to watch the life fade from her eyes. He wants her to know how he felt. He needs to do this.

The power of five lions pushes him beyond his usual strength level, turning this battle almost into child's play for him. It’d be so easy to kill her, to end the suffering she’s caused once and for all.

He can end all of the sufferings if he kills her. He can do it, he can bring peace to the universe.

Suddenly his brain screeches to a halt, his leg catching mid-air before it collides against the cowering girl. What is he thinking… this… this isn’t him. He doesn’t want this. His mind flickers back to their last fight, the Empresses words ringing through his ears and chills run up his spine.

_ “Keith, we want the same thing, we may be going about it in different ways, but we both want peace for the universe. We both want the suffering in the universe to stop, we want to create a better life for everyone!” _

This is how it all started for her, didn’t it? She killed one person for her goal, and soon that wasn’t enough. She took over one host, and then decided she was doing the right thing by taking over the next, and then the next and then the next. Eventually, she couldn’t stop, she fell into an endless cycle.

The Empress lies there on the floor, her lip bruises and bleeding, her ribs broken and arms covered in scratches. Her clothes are ripped and tattered, soaking up her own blood and water alike as she lies on the floor. Her body twitches helplessly with each heartbeat, pain rocketing through her with each passing moment.

She looks pathetic… and human. She isn’t this all powerful god; she’s just a scared creature doing whatever she thinks is the best. Anyone could turn into her, couldn’t they? She cries, bleeds and feels just like anyone else.

He can’t turn into her. He can’t turn into this _monster_.

He slowly places his foot back on the ground, stepping back away from the injured girl. “Go.” He orders, his voice firm and unwavering. The anger melts from his body, but the tensions stays there regardless, his shoulders stiff as he looks down on her.

“W-What?” She says between coughs, her voice coming out as a wheezed whisper.

“Go!” He says more confidently this time, pointing in a vague direction. He doesn’t care where she goes, as long as it’s away from here. “I’m not going to kill you, just get out of my sight” He spits, disgust clear in his voice.

“Why?” She’s confused, scared and angry all at once.

“Because I’m not like you. I’m not going to kill someone just because I think they deserve it. Now, go,” He says as he crosses his arms, his eyes holding nothing but pure hatred. Just because he isn’t going to kill her doesn’t mean he has to tolerate her. “But I swear to god if you even sneeze in anyone's general direction I’m going to personally track you down.” He glares once more. “And next time I won’t be so forgiving.”

The Empress nods frantically, scrambling to her knees with teary eyes, her lip badly bruises and arms bent awkwardly. “T-Thank you!” She mutters, trying to gain her footing. Her body starts to dissolve in a puff of grey smoke, her eyes drifting shut as a small, weak smile makes its way across her lips. “I knew I was right about you. I thank you, Keith, I’ll never forget you.” Before Keith can say anything in response, she’s gone.

As in…  _ Gone _ , gone. The ripples of water that once grew around her feet disappearing into the black water around him, the lilac stars glowing through the grey smog as it clears.

He focuses on the energy around him, but he can’t feel anything. It’s just him and the stars. He doesn’t know where she’s going, but he can’t find it in himself to care. She won’t have the guts to try anything again, at least not for a long, long time. And if she ever does, Keith will be there to stop her.

Maybe he’ll see her again, maybe he won’t. He doesn’t want to worry about the future, for now… he doesn’t have to. He smiles to himself, running his hand through his matted hair. For the first time in forever, there’s no incessant buzz in the back of his head, nor a weight on his shoulders.  There’s quite literally a weight off of his shoulders, his body finally relaxing for the first time in months. He’s okay… for once he can actually say he’s okay. Everything is going to be fine now, no matter what.

He closes his eyes and sighs deeply. He’s ready to go back home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to check out my [Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out!  
> Byyyee!!


	19. The Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, okay! This is the final chapter!! I can't believe I actually made it this far, I'm even going to lie.  
> Writing this has been a blast and I hope you've all enjoyed it!!  
> So, enjoy the chapter!! I'll see you guys on the other side.

Keith’s fade back into consciousness is slow, annoyingly slow. It’s like he’s slowly floating towards the surface of a fast ocean, his body limp and weak as he simply lets the tides take him wherever they see fit.

Maybe before he’d be impatient, constantly thrashing around as he tries to surface quicker, but right now, he can just enjoy the ride. It’s peaceful, quiet, serine; basically, everything that his life has lacked for the past few months.

He’s not really sure where he is, he can only assume he’s in purgatory, a place between life and death, the astral plane and the physical world. He doesn’t understand what’s happening, he doesn’t know why it’s taking him so long to return to his body, but right now, he doesn’t really care. If he’s being honest, his life has gotten to the point where he’s stopped trying to piece together the mystery that is the Empress. She’s gone now anyway.

It’s a slow gradual climb to the surface, his eyes still tightly closed as he simply drifts through the abyss. There’s a gradual pull on his body, like a magnet pulling him towards something. He simply lets it take him. However, instead of the light floating feeling that consumed him before, there’s this unexplainable weight on his chest, the shooting across the rest of his body.

The weight grows unbearable, pain rocketing through every nerve of his body, echoing from his head to his toes in waves. He shoots up with a gasp, his eyes shooting open as he clutches his chest, the phantom pressure fading away as his breathing evens out.

He traces his fingers over his jaw, pressing lightly against the bone underneath, feeling for the tell-tale explosion of pain the comes with a broken jaw. Yet, there’s nothing. His fingers run over his bottom lip, cheeks, neck and temples. All evidence of his fight is gone, not a single scratch or lesion on his skin. The fight almost seems like some kind of weird dream, the only solid reminder of what happened is the phantom throbbing of his head.

He looks around, gently rising to his feet as his legs wobble. He’s moved from where he was earlier, his body resting against the metal wall of his Lion, rather than lying calmly in the centre of the chasms. It’s rather surreal, worrying about why your body moved while you were gone, he can say with certainty it’s something he never thought he’d have to worry about.

 He knows exactly why his body moved – and even worse, who moved it – but, he’s okay. He’s okay. It’s over. He runs his hands through his hair, flattening his midnight locks that jut out from his head at awkward angles. There’s a stiffness in his body, his joints creaking with each step he takes as his body gets used to moving again. God knows how long he was out.

He shakes out his limbs with a few satisfying pops, gradually he starts feeling like normal, no resistance in his body as he moves around, a small smile on his lips. It’s weird to be in his body without another voice yelling in the background, to have his body respond to his commands without any hesitation.

Red is still curled carefully around him, her head poking out from under her claws, her yellow eyes fixated on his every movement with a wary gaze. There’s a gentle prodding in his mind, nothing forceful, but it’s still there. It’s Red, that much he can tell, she’s carefully searching through the mental link, taking careful care not to freak him out; all while searching for any traces of the Empress, of course.

Her eyes remain trained on him as he steps forward, placing his hand on the vast surface of her metallic claw, his hand barely covering any of the surface as he gently runs his hand up and down the metal. “Shhh, it’s just me, girl. I’m okay, it’s all over now,” He whispers in a hushed tone, his gaze unwavering as he looks back into her eyes, smiling softly as he lets her search for anything she needs.

It entire hangar is dead-silent for a few seconds, tension practically cackling between the lion and her paladin. Suddenly, Red purrs louder than he’s ever heard, vibrations shooting through the ground and walls that surround them, even going as far as to vibrate Keith’s bones as her tail swishes excitedly behind her. 

Red’s purring stops as a loud grind of metal against metal rips through the hangar, four other lions excitedly jumping on top of Red as they peak over her back, four different sets of yellow eyes staring down at Keith through the gaps of Red’s makeshift fortress. Blue and Green fight like siblings, pushing each other as they stare down at Keith, shoving each other out of the way as they try to get the best view. Suddenly Keith understands the life of a Zoo animal.

To his left, Keith’s helmet suddenly crackles, muffled voices echoing out from his helmet as they static slowly fades out. Keith rushes to his helmet, collapsing to his knees as he pulls the helmet closer to his head, listening carefully as the voices start again.

“Wh--t’s go--g on wi-- the lions?!” Keith recognises the voice instantly, it’s Hunk. He’s freaking out, that much Keith can tell. His voice cracks badly, his words stopping and starting with the crackling of static. Keith pulls the helmet over his head, adjusting the channel as the voices clear out, the static slowly fades away.

“I don’t know, Green won’t listen to me!!” Pidge yells next, “She’s too excited, she’s acting like a damn kitten!” 

“Yellow is just constantly chanting ‘hug’, not that’ it’s out of the ordinary for her, but still…” Hunk trails off with a quiet sigh.

Lance suddenly butts into the conversation, his voice sending waves of calm crashing down over Keith in the chaos that has been the past few months. “I don’t know what’s happening, but Red’s at the centre of it all… maybe it has something to do with Keith?” Lance questions, not quite sounding sure about himself. As if on cue, Red growls, wiggling under the weight of the other lions as she tries to pull away, raising on her hind legs as she pulls backwards. She pulls fruitlessly, well and truly stuck under the rest of the Lions.

Keith reaches up for his helmet, pressing down on the communications feature. He collects himself, listening to the quiet beeping of his microphone, signalling that he’s broadcasting to the rest of his team. He takes a deep breath, swallowing his fears. “Hey…” He says with a shaky breath, his voice wavering, only barely above a whisper.

He doesn’t really know what he’s supposed to say, not after everything that happened. The silence in the room is choking him, the ear-shattering screeching of the lions pushing each other coming to a complete halt as he talks. His voice doesn’t necessarily echo, but he feels like it does. Each second feels like hours as his words echo through his head time and time again.

The team is deathly silent, not giving Keith so much as a single sign that they even heard him. So, he tries again, “Hey… is this thing on?” It feels weird to be so oddly casual about this whole thing, but you can’t really expect Keith to jump out from his lion, screaming about how he’s alive. His words aren’t the climatic end to a life or death fight you’d come to expect from this kind of situations, but flying giant robot lions isn’t really a normal situation either.

“Keith?” Shiro is the first to speak up, the rest of the team still processing this whole situation.

“Uh… Hey? It’s uh- good to hear you,” Keith says. “Really good, actually” he adds on for good measure.

“God, it’s good to hear you too… are you okay?” Shiro says, his voice radiating warmth. Honestly, Keith can practically hear him smiling.

Keith laughs lightly, a smile working its way across his face as he looks up at the lions that are still staring down at him. “Honestly, I’m better than okay,” he says. “Better than I’ve been in a long time…”

“That’s good to hear, I assume the fight went… well?” Keith can tell Shiro it more or less at a loss for words. He’s treading on eggshells, taking extra caution with each word, his voice purposely mutual and calming.

“Well, I wouldn’t really put it that way. I wouldn’t even say that I won if we’re being honest… I was unfairly matched, that’s for sure. The lions came to my recuse though.” Keith slaps his hand on the metal of Red’s tail. “I wouldn’t have made it if it weren’t for them.” Red purrs loudly under the praise.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Hunk is the next to speak up, “Keith, did you almost lose? Please don’t tell me you almost lost, otherwise I may never stop hugging you, like, ever.”

“No, I didn’t almost lose.” Hunk exhales loudly, muttering a small ‘Thank god,’ under his breath. “I did lose. Well, at least for a while I did. It’s kind of hard to articulate.”

“Keith, I told you not to tell me!” Hunk groans, his voice wavering slightly. “So, you only lost in a game of cards or something… right? Like, nothing serious?” Does Hunk seriously think they really played a game of rock, paper, scissors to dictate who gets control over Keith’s body?

“No, I died.” Nice one, Keith. What a great way to tell everyone about the trauma you’ve gone through, truly you have a way with words. “I mean, maybe I was unconscious? I don’t really know… she bashed my head against the ground and the next thing I knew I was waking up with the lions around me.” Soon the lions climb down from onto of Red, the lion in question slowly unwrapping herself from around Keith.

She raises to her feet, quickly hopping around Keith as she walks to the side of the room, sitting calmly with the rest of the lions. Keith turns to his side, pulling his helmet up over his head in one swift movement. Finally, out in the open, Keith’s makes eye contact with the rest of the team, everyone standing together with warm smiles.

Keith isn’t too sure who starts to run first, but the next thing he knows, he’s dropping to his knees as Pidge flings herself into his open arms, Hunk following not too far after. He lands on his back with a loud grunt, both Hunk and Pidge resting their full weight on him as they wail into his armour. “YOU’RE NEVER ALLOWED TO LEAVE AGAIN!!” Hunk yells especially loud, Pidge choking out a sob in return.

“I, as the leader, second this. Keith, you’ve officially been grounded to the confines of the castle for the rest of eternity,” Shiro says proudly, standing slightly off to the side as he spares Keith’s ribs from anymore crushing weight.

“Bu-” He starts, his voice slightly wheezed and breathily.

Shiro cuts him off quickly, “No buts!! See this colour?” Shiro says, jutting his thumb into the black strip of plastic on his suit. “It means I make the rules, so, you’re grounded forever.” Well, Fuck. Keith can’t really argue with that, can he?

Hunk slowly climbs off of Keith, whipping his nose with little regard of appearances as he sniffles, falling back into line next to Shiro. Pidge, however, refuses to leave Keith’s side. She clings tightly like some kind of koala, her arms and legs wrapped tightly around Keith’s torso.

Soon enough Keith wobbles to his feet as Pidge slides down off his shoulders, finally letting him breathe. Shiro pats Keith firmly on the back, his hand hovering over Keith’s shoulder blades supportively for a moment before he pulls away.

“Keith, I’m sure I’m speaking for all of us when I say I’m happy to see you back in one piece. I never doubted you for a second,” Allura says softly, walking up to him as she wraps his arms around him next. It’s really nice, actually. Keith has never had the best past with Allura, especially after the whole half-galra situation… but it’s nice to know that she really does care. They may not be the closest members of the team, but Keith can confidently say he cares for her just like he does for the rest of the team.

The mice squeak loudly, waving at him from atop of Allura’s shoulder. “Yes! It’s great that you gave the Empress a good ol’ fashioned smackdown! She’s had to coming to her for generations now!” Coran says with a loud, hearty laugh, twirling his moustache as he talks. “I can’t say that I never doubted you, but I still believed you’d give her a damn good run for her money!” Coran doesn’t do much else, he simply hovers behind Keith, rambling about the tales of the Empress he’s heard throughout the years. However, somehow that more comforting than any hug he could give.

Even with everyone around him, Keith still feels like something’s missing. In this sea of warmth, something just isn’t right.

It’s then that Keith notices that the team isn’t complete, not really.

“Hey, guys?” Keith says slowly, watching as everyone’s heads snap towards him. “Where’s Lance?”

Hunk pauses for a second, glancing over his shoulder as he furrows his eyebrows. “I’m not too sure… He left a few minutes ago, I think he may have gone to his room. He said he wasn’t feeling too well,” Hunk says, his voice thick with both concern and confusion.

“Oh…” Keith says slowly. So, Lance was here when Keith woke up, but he left before he could say hi? A part of him instantly starts to panic, jumping to conclusions faster than he can so much as think ‘wait’. Parts of his brain instantly start to run into panic mode, stressing about if Lance was disappointed that Keith made it out okay. Even if that idea is completely and utterly absurd.

Keith doesn’t really push the conversation much further and tries his best to push Lance to the back of his mind for now. If Lance wants to talk to him (which he should, right?) he’ll catch up with Keith soon enough.

Soon enough, Keith finds himself laughing along with the rest of the team, the world around him seems far brighter than it’s been in a long time. Hunk and Pidge make silly faces at each other while Shiro looks on with an amused smile, occasionally joining in when he feels like no one is watching. Allura and Coran share tales of their past all while the mice seemingly bicker on her shoulder.

\---

Hours passed, and yet Lance never showed. Not for training, not for team building exercises (which Shiro really just turned into a game as a kind of ‘welcome back’ for Keith) and not even for dinner.

The entire team sits around the table, leaguing heartily as they talk about their day. It’s warm, livelier than it’s been in a long time now that Keith is well and truly back. Yet, it’s still not the same without Lance. It’s not like there’s a gaping hole within the team, but it’s still noticeable… especially for Keith.

Most jokes feel hollow... if that even makes sense. It’s not the same without Lance trying to make a pass at Allura every fifteen seconds, even if he doesn’t actually want to date her anymore. It’s not the same without Hunk trying to save face when Lance starts spouting embarrassing nonsense from their garrison days.

It’s nice, but it’s not perfect.

Keith idly pokes at his food goo, stirring it around with his spoon. Somehow eating this seems even more unappetising then usual. He snorts out the occasional laugh as he listens to the conversations that happen around him, but his eyes stay downcast towards his bowl.

Keith appreciates what the team has done for him, he appreciates it more than he can say. Hunk tried extra hard to make the food goo somewhat palatable, Shiro turned training into a makeshift game of tag, Allura allowed Keith to skip out on any meetings he desired, and Pidge promised to stop pranking him (honestly though, that could be reverse psychology knowing her).

Today has been the best day he’s had in a long time, but without Lance… it just doesn’t feel right.

Man, he’s acting like a lovesick teenager, whining about how their true love won’t notice them. All he needs is to start doodling ‘Keith McClain’ in the margins of his notebooks as he’s officially a high school girl.

Keith suddenly drops his spoon into the goo as he pushes himself away from the table, his chair grinding against the floor in the process. “Thanks for the dinner… and today, guys. I’m not feeling too well, so I’m just-” Keith mumbles, gesturing vaguely over his shoulder as he pats his stomach.

Shiro holds his hand up, “Keith it’s fine, go talk to Lance.” Sometimes Keith hates how well Shiro knows him. Keith ignores the sly grins Hunk and Pidge give each other as Keith nods and makes his way towards the doors of the dining room. Stumbling over his own feet as he enters the hallway.

He walks briskly down the hall, his mind flooding with a hundred different worse case scenarios. His main concern is, of course, why Lance didn’t want to see him. Keith heard his voice over the coms while he was still with Red, but by the time he actually saw the team… he was gone.

Soon enough Keith finds himself standing outside of Lance’s room, the metallic door closed tightly shut. It’s almost shocking to see Lance’s door shut, he usually leaves it open, at least just a bit. He’s open door policy from the garrison carried over to space, both figuratively and literally his door was open to anyone who needed to talk. And yet, here it is, locked.

Keith goes to knock on the door but freeze mid-way, his fist closed tightly as it hovers mid-air. He inhales and exhales a few times as he tries to calm his nerves, his eyes knitted tightly shut as he stands alone in the empty hallway. He’s worried, that’s for sure. Not for Lance, but for himself.

Okay, that came out wrong.

He’s not worried about Lance’s _safety_ , more about if Lance suddenly hates him now. Lance has always been the most supportive of all of the team members, making it especially jarring that he wasn’t the first one to greet him when he came back.

Keith mentally kicks himself and quickly knocks on the door. Lance wouldn’t suddenly decide that he hates him now, he just isn’t that person. This is the same Lance that tried to flirt with Nyma after she tied him to a tree. This is the same Lance that thought knitting sweaters for the Galra empire would solve the universal crises.

Suddenly the doors slide open, revealing Lance standing on the other side of the door, his arms crossed over his chest as he leans against the doorframe. His face is purposely neutral, no emotion showing as his eyes trail over Keith.

“Uh-” Keith mumbles, not really thinking this whole plan through.

Well, he didn’t even a plan in the first place, so it’s not like he had anything to think through.

“I just wanted to say hi… I didn’t get to see you before and all that…” Keith trails off, the air growing tenser with each passing second.

“Okay, well, now you’ve said it. Are you done now?” Keith almost gets whiplash at how fast Lance’s attitude changed.

Keith feels rage bubble up inside of him as Lance stands there, unamused. “Okay, why are you being such an asshole right now?” Keith snaps, glaring at Lance as he forces his way into the Blue Paladins room.

“I just wanted some time for myself, is that too much to ask?” Lance says, his voice wavering slightly, his previous unamused and indifferent attitude breaking away with each word the comes out of his mouth. “These past few days have been… just a lot. Okay, I just really need some time to think.”

“I really don’t want to fight about this, not after everything I’ve gone through. Look, I’m just going to say this straight out, okay?” Keith took Lance’s silence as confirmation to continue. “It hurt when I saw the rest of the team and you weren’t there, okay? It’s stupid and dumb, but I still felt it.”

Lance doesn’t say anything, so Keith keeps rambling.

“I know I shouldn’t care that you weren’t there with open arms or some shit, but I guess I just expected you to be happy that I was safe? It just sucks, Lance. I know after everything that’s happened this sort of thing shouldn’t phase me, but it does.” Keith laughs bitterly. “Classic me, but it felt like this whole ordeal bonded us? It’s hard to articulate, but I just felt like something was growing between us.”

“Something was.” Lance spins around to meet Keith’s eyes. “I mean, something still is. Look, I’m sorry I wasn’t there, and I’m sorry that I avoided you all day… but.” Lance pauses as sighs, turning around so he can run his hand through his hair. “You died, okay? You said that yourself, you died, and I wasn’t there to protect you. I just started to think about where my life would be if you weren’t there… and I couldn’t handle it.”

“Lance, I-” This time Lance is the one who keeps rambling.

“Keith…” Lance sounds so vulnerable. “It’s so fucking cliché but I felt l wouldn’t be complete without you. Not just because we couldn’t form Voltron, or that the team would be different with you gone. I – I wouldn’t be the same if you weren’t here, I’d still be that cocky kid that only thought with his dick.” The two of them share a much-needed laugh at that.

“Lance, I’m okay. Look at me,” Keith says, grabbing Lance’s hand as he places it on his cheek, pressing his hand above Lance’s to hold it in place. “I’m right here, I’m alive, I’m safe and I’m not going anywhere.” Lance slowly brushes his thumb along Keith’s cheek, Keith’s face flushing the slightest bit as he does so.

Lance’s hand stays resting on Keith’s cheek long after Keith’s hand drops away. Suddenly a different tension builds slowly in the room. They both stand there, staring into each other’s eyes as Keith fists his hands into Lance’s shirt.

The two find themselves slowly drifting closer together, their foreheads pressed together as Lance’s other hand slowly cups Keith’s other cheek. Keith can feel the gentle puffs of hot breath against his face, he can almost feel the fluttering of Lance’s eyelashes as they rest near millimetres apart. “Hey, can I try something crazy?” Lance whispers, his voice so quiet Keith would have completely missed it if not for their proximity. It’s an intimate scene, something just for the two of them.

Keith nods slowly, his eyes flickering down to Lance's lips and back up again quickly. Lance smiles as gently pulls Keith towards him. At first, the touch is so soft Keith barely notices it, it’s a quick fleeting sensation as Lance's lips only barely graze over his. Yet, adds to the burning desire for more.

“Was that okay?” Lance whispers, refusing to pull any further away, his hands still gently cupping Keith’s face.

“You tell me.” Keith surges forward this time, wrapping his arms around Lance’s shoulders as he pulls him closer. Lance stutters in place for a moment, his body frozen and unresponsive before he melts into the kiss. His hands fall away from Keith’s face and wrap around his waist, pulling him that little bit closer. At this point, any space between them is almost excruciating, they pull each other as close as they can manage and refuse to let go.

After everything he’s gone through, Keith holds onto Lance he’s slipping through his fingers. He refuses to let go, feeling as if Lance will disappear the moment he lets go. Finally, Keith pulls, panting quietly as his fingers remain interlaced in Lance’s hair. “I love you,” Keith blurts out, as if it’s the only thing he knows how to say. A few seconds pass before his face flushes a deep red, the weight of his words finally registering in his mind.

_He just told Lance that he loves him._

_He just told Lance that he **loves** him._

Before Keith can slip any further into his confession induced panic attack, Lance pulls him back in for another kiss. It only lasts a few seconds, but it has Keith’s head spinning all the same. “I love you too,” Lance says, smiling softly.

Keith almost melts into a pile of goo right then and there.

“So, does this mean we’re dating?” Keith asks, feeling almost as if he doesn’t really need an answer.

“Yeah… I’d really like that,” Lance says softly. Keith slowly unwraps his arms from around Lance’s shoulders and instead reaches down, gently interlacing their fingers. Lance smiles, giving Keith’s hand a gentle squeeze as they stand together, smiling idiotically. “That’s if you’re okay with it, of course.”

Keith reacts almost immediately, nodding enthusiastically before Lance can even really finish his sentence. “I’m 100% okay with it, like, I’m the most okay person you’ve met. That’s me! Mr okay!” Keith rambles mindlessly. Soon enough he starts to wish for the ground to open up underneath him and swallow him whole.

Lance decides to shut Keith up before he says anything else by gently pulling him in for another kiss. It’s chaste and far too short for Keith’s liking, but it’s perfect all the same. In all honesty, in the darkness of Lances room, Keith finally feels like everything is going to turn out okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's it for the story! I'm looking into adding an epilogue, but only if you guys want it. I'm happy to leave the story here and I'm pretty satisfied with there it is now.  
> Thank you all SO much for reading this! Even more so for any comments or kudos along the way, it means the world to me <3
> 
> Here's [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out! I'm always ready to talk, so shoot me a message there if you want to talk. 
> 
> Thank you all again for reading this!! If you want an epilouge, don't be scared to let me know! Otherwise, I've got a bunch of other fic up here if you're interested in reading them. I hope to see you guys around!! Bye!!


	20. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is officially it! Unless something crazy happens, I doubt I'll pick this story up again. I think it's finally where it needs to be and there's no more loose ends to tie up.  
> Thank you all for reading this and supporting me every step of the way.  
> Now!! Onwards to the Epilogue!

Life has been good lately. Really good.

“Okay, Keith, I’ve got you covered,” Lance spins around so his back is facing Keith, his Bayard held out in front of him protectively.

The hall is empty, but if the quiet tapping of soldiers in the distance is anything to go off, it won’t be soon.

“Thanks, Lance,” Keith says, tapping his helmet twice as his visor slides down to cover his face.

“You got it, babe.”

Even now, Keith’s heart stutters in his chest at the pet name.

Yeah… life is good.

Keith nods sharply and stands up, pressing his back against the faded lilac wall behind him as he rounds the corner, listening to the metallic thumping of footsteps echo through the halls. There’s the distant sound of gunfire coming from up the hall, the soldiers must have found the rest of the team.

“This is disgusting, can you to cut it with the PDA for once in your life?” Pidge groans loudly, her voice almost drowned out by the gunfire.

“Oh, come on, we’re not that bad,” Keith says as he sneaks through the empty hall.

Pidge scoffs loudly, “Keith, clearly you don’t know how much Lance talks about you when you’re not around. You only see half of it.”

“Well, I think it’s sweet,” Keith responds, not really paying attention as he draws closer to a pair of thick metal doors.

Hunk and Pidge make gagging noises over the coms. Keith presses himself up against a nearby column, holding his breath as the door slides open with a loud whirring noise. A pair of Galran soldiers march out from the control room, guns in hand as they talk, their faces distorted by the helmets they wear.

They continue down the hall, too engrossed in their conversation to notice Keith slipping through the closing doors. Keith pulls out his Bayard as he approaches the control panel, he gives the room a once-over as he checks for any other guards, but it’s completely empty.

Pidge says, “Okay, Keith, listen closely. I need you to grab the little blue chip out from inside of the main hard drive, once you’ve got that, you can destroy the whole control panel.”

Keith nods and places his hand on the scanner, a dull lavender light scans across his hand a few times before the entire room lights up. The computer system fires up with a loud beep as pages upon pages of information pops up on holographic screens.

Keith types in a few commands and the maintenance hatch opens itself up for him. He pulls away from the rusted metal and fumbles around for the computer chip. Then, in the end, he grabs ten different chips for every colour under the damn sun just to be safe – it wouldn’t be the first time Pidge forgot to tell him to get something. He throws the chips into a small velvet bag and straps the bag to his belt.

As he sprints out of the room, he pulls out his Bayard and makes a deep slash in the control panel, watching as sparks fly out from the ‘wound’. Error messages appear on every screen as a sick smile spreads across Keith’s face. Mission accomplished. Keith jogs down the hall, listening out for the rest of his team.

“Okay, I’ve got the chips and-” Keith flinches as something explodes behind him, sending ripples throughout the base “- And the computer room has been… taken care of.”

“Keith, why do I hear explosions?” Shiro drawls, barely masking his amusement with feigned annoyance.

“You told me to shut down their computer systems, you never specified how,” Keith supplies with a shrug, his footsteps echoing down the empty halls, he launches himself over destroyed Galra resonance drones as he jogs through the hall.

He rounds a corner and finds the team waiting for him by the lions, the majority of them simply leaning against the paws of their lions, arms crossed. Keith tugs the velvet bag off his belt and throws it at Pidge, watching as she yelps and scrambles to catch it.

“Here, I got your nerd stuff,” Keith says.

Pidge opens the bag and pours the chips out into her hand, muttering to herself as she analyses each one.

“Thanks,” she says, not looking up from her computer chips.

“Team, let’s just get back to the castle before Keith blows anything else up,” Shiro teases, gesturing towards the lions that are neatly parked behind them.

Keith scoffs, crosses his arms and says, “Excuse me! This is coming from the man who accidentally piloted Black straight into a moon and destroyed it!” Keith has changed over the past few years, almost dying really put everything in perspective.

Before, he always pushed the team away and kept his walls up at all times, but after the Empress situation, he realised how self-destructive what he was doing really was.

Before he worked and worked all day every day, he never joked around with the team and refused to let his guard down, even around the people he trusted most. Now, however, he’s finally come to accept that these people – his family – aren’t going to betray him. He’s learnt to goof off and take much-needed breaks, even if he sometimes slips back into his old habits and trains himself half-to-death, someone is always there to help.

So yeah, he’s changed a lot. Everyone has.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Shiro retorts, pursing his lips while he steps closer towards Black, almost attempting to escape this whole situation.

“YOU BLEW UP A MOON, SHIRO!!” Keith yells, exasperated.

“Come on, let’s just go,” Shrio says, quickly changing the topic as he heads towards the Black lion. 

“Yeah, we don’t want to get arrested by the moon police,” Keith drawled as he makes his way towards red. “Imagine if they abducted us for blowing up their moon! Being stuck in space forever, what a nightmare!” Keith says, sarcasm practically dripping from his voice as Red kneels down and opens her mouth.

The rest of the team snickers in the background as they all settle into their lions. The rest of the team follows in turn, snickering under their breaths while they step into their lions. Shiro rolls his eyes, mumbling about how he should have listened to Adam and stayed on Earth. Keith settles into the cockpit of Red and places his hands onto the control panel as she whirrs to life. The screens flicker on, fading in and out as star maps cover the clear glass.

Allura’s voice soon crackles in over the speakers, slowly clearing up as the systems come online.

“Ah, Paladins! I received reports of explosions within the Galran compound, is everyone okay?” Allura says over the speaker, concern thick in her voice.

“Aw, you really do care about me, Princess,” Lance cooes.

Keith snorts and shakes his head, even he’s dating someone, Lance is never going to stop hitting on Allura. It’s just a playful thing anyway, he’s not actually trying to get anywhere with his advances. Lance is nothing if not faithful, so, Keith’s fine with it.

If anything, it’s pretty hilarious.

“I take it that everything went fine then?” She says, completely ignoring Lance’s advances.

“Yeah, great. We’re coming back now, Allura,” Shiro says, firing up Black.

Keith stifles his laughter and says, “Make sure not to hit any moons while you’re flying.”

Almost immediately, Keith gets a notification on his dashboard saying that the black lion has shut off communications... and based on how hard Pidge is laughing, she got the same message. The ride back to the castle is uneventful, Pidge manages to unmute her speaker from Shiro’s perspective and goes back to ruthlessly mocking him. It is what she does best. Keith, occasionally, finds himself joining in, but he mainly flies back in silence. Something feels different today, something that he can’t quite put his finger on.

It’s not something bad and nothing seems particularly wrong… just different. A foreboding aura hangs in the air, giving Keith the feeling that everything is going to change, but he can only hope it means his life is changing for the better. Keith briefly glances over at the blue lion that flies past him. Then again, his life can’t get that much better.

Soon enough, Keith parks Red inside of the hanger and steps out into the castle, happily breathing in the filtered air as he pulls off his helmet. He brushes his hand through his helmet hair and tries to flatten out his complete mess of a mane. He heads off to his room soon after he arrives home, not bothering to train, for once in his life. Keith sneaks into his room and changes into his casual gear, not bothering to grab his jacket as he slips his plain shirt on.

Keith steps out into the corridors of the castle, listening as the rest of the team carries on in the distance. Pidge yells various profanities at her computer from inside of her room, Hunk is, yet again, trying to make something somewhat palatable out of the alien ingredients and Allura, Coran and Shiro are all planning their next mission; even if the team only just finished their last one less than twenty minutes ago.

Keith isn’t fazed by the commotion that goes on around him as he knows exactly where he’s going. He heads down the hall that he’s walked countless times, idly listening to Pidge throwing her stuff around her room as he passes. She’s probably stuck behind a firewall again. Soon enough, Keith ends up outside a familiar room, the door left wide open.

“Hey,” he greets with a small wave before immediately flopping face first down on the bed.

“Tired?” Lance says while laughing, sitting down on his own bed next to Keith.

“Yeah,” Keith says, rolling over onto his back so he can look at Lance.

Their conversation ends there, leaving them both in a comfortable silence. It’s not long until they fall into their usual motions, Lance lies on his back with Keith resting calmly on his chest. Keith closes his eyes and his breathing evens out as Lance gently runs his fingers through Keith’s hair.

It’s a common routine for them, a gentle dance that they both have memorised. Soft fleeting touches send shivers down Keith’s spine, whispered confessions cause his heart to skip a beat. Whenever they’re together, the rest of the world seems to fade away.

However, the world fades back within a split second as Lance says, “Hey, Keith?”

“Mmm?” Keith hums, refusing to open his eyes as he buries himself further into Lance's chest, holding onto the peace and quiet for as long as humanly possible.

“Do you ever think about what our life could be after the war?” Lance pauses for a second, his hand stuttering in place for a moment before he continues. “Because, this can’t go on forever, right? The Galra are getting weaker and weaker every day, surely the war is coming to a close.”

Lance brushes out any knots he comes across as his fingers continue to run through Keith’s hair… and to think that Keith was once convinced that Lance hated his hair.

“Yeah, I’ve thought about it,” Keith supplies, his eyes still closed as he fights to stay in his state of rest.

Keith finally gives up on the idea of falling asleep in Lance’s arms and lifts his head so he’s finally looking at his boyfriend.

“W-what exactly do you think about?” Lance asks, his voice quivering.

It’s unusual, to say the least. They’ve been together for so long, Keith naturally assumed they were done being nervous and awkward around each other.

“Nothing too specific,” Keith says with a shrug. “Probably showing my mum around Earth, convincing Shiro to finally re-propose to Adam,” Lance flinches at the word ‘propose’. “Sometimes I think about meeting your family, only if you’d be okay with that, of course.”

“No! I definitely want you to meet them, they’d love you.” They both find themselves subconsciously interlacing their fingers. “I want you to be apart of my family, I want you to be more than someone I happen to be dating.”

“God, Pidge was right, you are cheesy!” Keith snorts, dropping his head down to muffle his laughter in Lance’s chest.

“Hey! You love it!” Lance says, playfully shoving Keith’s head off of his chest, all while he laughs alongside him.

Keith rolls his eyes and scoffs with mock annoyance; however, it only lasts a moment before a smile makes it way across his face.

“Well, we have been dating for over three years now,” Keith leans forward and places a small, chaste kiss on Lance's cheek before pulling away with a loving gaze. “So, yeah, I’d say that I do.”

“I still can’t believe you’re in love with me,” Lance says, almost hysterically, his hand tightening around Keith’s to an almost painful extent.

“Damn you’ve caught me. I’ve said, ‘I love you’ countless times over these three years, but each one has been a lie. I’m really manipulating you so when we get on Earth I can dump you and use you and try and get it on with your sister,” Keith deadpans.

He’s also immediately grateful that Lance decides to move past the fact that he said, ‘get it on’.

“Okay, the sarcasm isn’t appreciated right now.”

“Well, I don’t know what else I can say, Lance,” Keith shrugs before jokingly adding, “Unless you can make some kind of magical question that’ll prove my ‘devotion’ to you or some shit,” Keith is joking, that’s something he should probably make clear.

It was all meant in good fun, to ease the tension that somehow mounted within the past few minutes.

That’s… not what happens though.

Keith can practically hear the cogs whirring in Lance’s head as his eyes widen. His mouth parts open into a small ‘o’ as he exhales slowly. Something dawns on Lance’s face. Excitement? Fear? Confusion? A combination of all three? Keith can’t really tell.

Whatever it is, it causes Lance to push Keith off of him like he’s on fire. Before Keith can so much as act offended, Lance grabs both of Keith’s hands and pulls him close, the both of them kneeling on the bed, noses almost touching.

Everything is moving too fast and Keith has absolutely no idea what’s going on. Then again, with Lance, he rarely does.

“Marry me.”

Keith’s world comes crashing down.

“What?” Keith asks, furrowing his eyebrows and shaking his head, subconsciously convincing himself that he’s heard Lance wrong.

Lance… couldn’t be asking that? Right? Keith’s heart spikes, all the same, his face flushes a deep red as he stares into Lance’s eyes, searching for malice or dishonesty, yet he finds nothing but complete adoration.

“Marry me. When we get back to earth, I want to get married,” Lance says again, his fingers interlacing with Keith’s.

It’s at that moment when Keith accepts that he heard Lance right the first time. That Lance may, in fact, be proposing.

“L-Lance, where is this coming from?!” Keith stutters, his brain melting into a rather useless pile of mush.

“Look, I had this big proposal planned out,” Lance lets go of Keith’s hands and swings his legs off the side of his bed. He stands up and takes a few steps away from Keith. “I was going to take you to this water planet that Allura and I found, I was going to go on this big monologue about how you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I wanted to wait for the right moment and make it spectacular. I wanted Hunk to cook us lunch so I could take you on a picnic beforehand. I wanted to get Shiro’s formal blessing and involve Pidge and Coran somehow too.”

“Lance, why is all of this in past tense?” Keith says, his heart skipping beats for a different reason entirely as he watches his boyfriend, and possible fiancée, walk away from him.

Is this Lance’s personal fucked up way of breaking up with him? Keith’s head is spinning, his vision blurs as he tries to make sense of this whole situation. Everything is happening all too fast, the second he answers one question, fifteen more questions arise.

Lance, however, doesn’t react to Keith’s obvious panic. Lance walks over to his closes and swings it open with a flourish. He pulls his signature jacket down from one of the many coat hangers and delves into its pockets. Lance makes a small sound when he finds what he’s looking for and discards his jacket to the side without much case shortly thereafter. Lance makes his way back towards Keith, his expression blank.

“Because I don’t want to propose like that anymore,” Keith’s heart practically shatters and Lance notices this and repeats, “I don’t want that anymore, or at least, I don’t want to wait for it. We don’t know how long this war is going to last, or how long it’s going to be until we can even go back to earth… but, I don’t care,” Lance finally makes it back to his bed again.

It’s then that Lance does the one thing Keith was never expecting -- Hoping, yes. Expecting, no. Lance places the object he previously pulled out of his jacket between his hands and slowly and meaningfully bends down onto one knee. Keith audibly gasps.

“I’m not going to talk about how much you mean to me, because we’d be here for hours. You’re my everything and I want to call you mine, officially,” Lance finally opens the box he’s been holding onto for far too long, in Keith’s option, revealing a small wedding band.

The ring shines a dark blue in the artificial light of Lance’s room, the natural metallic colour of the ring augmented to appear a beautiful aqua. The ring itself is plain, no crystals or intricate patterns adorning the aqua surface, but, it’s perfect.

“Oh my god,” Keith says, his hands flying up to cover his mouth.

Tears start to freely flow down his cheeks, no matter how many times he tries to blink them away. His vision blurs with each tear that wells up in his eye, yet, the glaring blue shine of the ring never loses its beauty.

“Keith Kogane, will you marry me?” Lance officially proposes, down on one knee, heart laid out on the line.

He’s trying to hide how scared he is, that much Keith can tell, he’s putting on a brave face, no matter how much this terrifies him.

Somehow, that minor detail makes Keith’s answer all the more obvious. That, of course, being—

“I – Uh!” Keith sputters out, his brain refusing to cooperate with him as he stares dumbly down at his boyfriend.

He knows exactly what he wants to say, it’s just that he can’t get the words out.

In the moment, Lance resembles something akin to a kicked puppy. The silence is necessarily awkward, but it’s tense all the same. For a moment Lance looks almost as if he’s ready to cry before he shakes his head and looks back up at Keith.

“It’s okay,” he says. “I can take rejection, it’s not that important anyway. I don’t want to like… pressure you into this or anything,” Keith doesn’t miss the quiet crack in his voice or the raspy sound of bottled emotion.

Keith knows it all too well. Lance goes to close the box, it’s then that Keith snaps out of his shock.

“No! I – Uh!” Keith fumbles again, shooting his hand out to stop Lance from completely closing the box.

Lance looks perplexed, to say the least, but more importantly, he looks hopeful. He slowly opens the box back up again, opting to stay there rather confused, than crush Keith’s hand.

Lance doesn’t move, he stays where he is, box outheld in front of him, kneeling on the ground with Keith’s hand resting atop the ring. It’s clear he’s waiting for a response or even a reaction besides Keith’s general stuttering.

“I-I want to – you know… do that,” Keith gestures vaguely between himself and the boy in front of him, the flush of his face quickly growing to match the colour of his lion.

Look, you can’t blame Keith for being a bumbling idiot in his situation. He’s never really been in a serious relationship, before now, at least, let alone had to accept a proposal. Let’s just say, Texas wasn’t really the best place for a gay, Half-Galra, orphaned teenager to find a boyfriend. So, what even is the social protocol for a marriage proposal?

Should Keith propose to Lance in return? Should he have a ring too? Does he respond formally? Is he overthinking this?

The answer to those questions, in no particular order, are: Probably not, only if he wants, it doesn’t really matter and most definitely.

Keith lets out a shaky breath and swallows his nerves. The logistics of the situation don’t really matter, he just wants to be with Lance. Hell, Lance is his first serious relationship, but that didn’t stop him three years ago.

“Yes,” Keith finally blurts out. “That’s what I mean to say. I’ll marry you,” Keith says with a strong nod, a smile making its way across his face as the reality of the situation truly settle in.

Lance wants to be with him and only him.

Lance smiles, in turn, his expression practically melting as the tension finally seeps out of him. He laughs under his breath, a small display of pure unbridled emotion slipping out without his knowing.

“Thank god, because I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t say yes,” Lance says, the smile never leaving his face.

It’s almost as if the information hasn’t quite settled in for him yet, much like it took a while for Keith to fully grasp what was happening.

“How could I say no?” Keith says, finally sliding off the bed and next to his boy-- Fiancé.

Keith tackles Lance into a hug, knocking the poor boy onto the ground as he holds him as close as humanly possible. It only takes Lance a few seconds before he responds in kind and wraps his arms around Keith. Keith buries his face in the crook of Lance’s neck and immediately decides that he’s never moving. Ever. Lance doesn’t seem to mind, however, as he too holds Keith close.

“Can I put it on you?” Lance asks, gently tracing circles in the small of Keith’s back.

Keith snorts loudly, “Don’t say that while I’m on top of you.”

“Ha, ha,” Lance mocks, his arms still tightly wrapped around Keith’s torso. “Can I though?” Lance says anyway.

Keith simply nods in return, basking in the warmth of his Fiancé, boy that’s never going to get old, as he holds him even closer. There’s a brisk and chaste brush of fingers against his palm, followed closely by the cool drag of metal against his ring finger. The sensation sends shivers up his spine. The ring wraps itself tightly around his finger, just tight enough for it to be noticeable without being uncomfortable.

Perfect, like everything else.

Keith holds his finger up in front of him, smiling at how the ring gleams in the artificial light of the room. He can only imagine what it’d look like in the moonlight.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you something about the ring.”

“Yeah?” Keith responds casually while he traces the lines of the ring across his finger.

“Well, you know how the Empress like… sorta brought us together?” Lance says, his voice nervous and unsure.

Keith can feel the thumping of Lance’s heart through his ribcage, it stutters a few times in his chest as he talks.

Keith’s stomach drops. There’s a reason they never talk about the Empress.

“Yeah?” Keith says slowly, not quite following Lance’s train of thought.

If he’s being honest, he’d much rather drop this conversation here. The Empress is one topic that they never really stray into, it almost always ends in fights and or panic attacks.

“Well, when I was getting the ring made, they said that, if I wanted, they could add something into the metal before it was cast.”

“Lance… What did you do?”

“I… may… have asked them to add a few drops of snake venom?” Lance says slowly, carefully enunciating each word as he shrinks back into the floor under him, fearing Keith’s reaction.

“You what?” Keith shouts, his eyebrows furrowing as he rips his eyes away from his ring to stare down at Lance.

Of course, Lance found a way to ingrain a secret meaning into the ring, it’s Lance we’re talking about here.

“Well! I just thought it would have been like a massive ‘FUCK YOU!’ to the Empress, you know?!” Lance scrambles for an explanation.

Lance places his hands on Keith's shoulders the second his breath starts to speed up, he’s a comforting presence that at least temporarily, stops Keith from slipping into yet another panic attack.

“Like,” he says, starting to explain himself again. “She was trying to tear us apart and inadvertently brought us together. I just feel like it’s kind of fitting that the thing that’ll bind us together for life… is made from the very thing that tried to break us.”

Keith goes eerily silent once Lance finishes talking, silence thunders through the room as Keith freezes in place, his only movement being the gentle rising and falling of his chest. Suddenly, Keith exhales shakily and laughs quietly under his breath.

“Lance,” Keith deadpans, “You could have given me a ring pop and I would have said yes.”

He’s not lying. Keith has never really been one for flashy jewelry, the ring itself doesn’t really matter him, it never has. He didn’t start dating Lance for the possibility of an expensive ring at the end of it all, he started dating Lance… because well, he’s Lance. However, he can’t lie, the idea of constantly wearing a reminder that he beat the Empress… sounds very appealing.

“Really?” Lance says slowly.

“Yes, really,” Keith badly mimics Lance in his own personal brand of mockery. “I’m marrying you, not the ring.”

Before Lance says anything else, Keith decides to shut him up. With his hands still gently cupping Lance’s face, he leans and presses their lips together. Lance melts almost immediately, smiling into the kiss. He wraps his arms around Keith’s waist and pulls him closer.

You know, after all of this, Keith may finally understand love.

Love isn’t some convoluted metaphor about bugs caught in a bug net, nor anything else for that matter.

Love is something that takes form in countless ways, thus it can’t simply be described. It’s the feeling a mother is overwhelmed with when she looks her child in the eyes; it’s wanting to protect someone, no matter what the cost; it’s an all-consuming inferno that demolishes everything in its path.

Sometimes, however, love is as simple as red and blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) I write a bunch of stuff there that isn't published here, so if you like my stuff go check that out! I'm always ready to talk, so shoot me a message there if you want to talk. 
> 
> One final time, I'd like to thank you all! I hope you enjoyed my silly little story :)

**Author's Note:**

> [My Tumblr](https://theaviandragon.tumblr.com/) If you want to talk to me, I'm always checking it!


End file.
